The Untitled Story of Doom
by Awesomely Rad and Co
Summary: Standalone, coauthored. Buffy characters, My Chemical Romance, original characters, and..you'll have to read to find out who else!. Full of awkwardness, insanely funny scenarios, and things that will make you go, what where they THINKING?
1. Background Info 101

**Chapter One:**

It was, by Sunnydale's standards, a far grander apartment than one would expect for such a young couple. But there it was. They owned two full floors at the very top of the town's tallest apartment building. A ten floor building (a one-Starbucks town remember?) and they owned, rather than rented, the 9th and 10th floors. The décor was a brilliant blend of a woman's taste for antiquity and elegance with a man's craving for solidarity and strength in features. It was perfection. And they adored it.

Caitlin opened the door with a quick flick of her fingers and entered quickly with her arms full of grocery bags. Yes she was an all-powerful fan fiction writer but food shopping is so much more enjoyable when it's not a necessity. The door closed behind her as though it had an automatic switch.

"I'm back!" she yelled to an empty apartment. No one answered. She dropped the groceries on the marble-top island and flicked her fingers again. The groceries disappeared and found their rightfully places within the kitchen. Puzzled by a lack of response, she yelled again. "Max?" still no answer. Then she spied a note with his handwriting on it stuck to the fridge

Went with Willow to pick up some magic supplies for her. Be home around 5. Want to go out for dinner tonight? I'm in a Mexicano mood!

She laughed softly and rolled her eyes. Glancing at the clock she saw that it was only 3:30. She put the note down and shrugged.

_At least I get clicker control for a few hours!_

Excited by the prospect she raced out of the kitchen and past the large, handcrafted, dark stained wooden dining room table with matching antique chairs. Down the hall, past the exquisite portraits from the 16th century, past the upscale bathroom, past 3 fully decorated guest rooms, down the winding staircase with a wrought iron railing, past the enormous master bedroom, past the fully equipped training room/gym and into the den where she plopped down on the dark brown leather couch and turned on the TV. She started flipping through the channels. Martha, cop show, soap, soap, soap, another cop show, law & order, autopsy, court-TV, Ellen, infomercial with Susan Lucci trying to sell a silver and gold duck for your dining room table, another cop show, and just as the girl was about to give up and smash the remote control into the HD plasma TV that Max had begged her to let him get, FUSE came on. There was a new My Chemical Romance video playing, "Disenchanted." Anger and disappointment swelled in her and she immediately turned the TV off and tossed the remote to the other side of the room.

It had been a year since she moved out of the mansion and 10 months since she last saw/talked to her ex-friend otherwise known as Tiffany. How did things get to be so profoundly skewed? It wasn't that long ago that Caitlin remembered them being happy and carefree. She and Tiffany burst in on the Sunnydale scene 5 years ago. They were gifted fan fiction writers that had the power to do anything they could possibly want to do in the world. It made their lives significantly easier and yet twice as difficult. 5 years ago they created Max and Jaden, Angel look-alikes with completely separate personalities and uniqueness was awarded to both. Max became Caitlin's lover and Jaden became Tiffany's. Both couples moved into the mansion that Angel shared with Buffy. There was more than enough room for all of them to live peacefully without feeling overcrowded.

Caitlin and Max had turned out to be two-halves of a whole, one not being able to exist happily without the other. Jaden and Tiffany were assumed to be the same by the rest of the Scooby Gang (which consisted of Buffy, Angel, Willow, Xander, Faith, and Giles). Caitlin had known better however. Jaden had been hopelessly infatuated with Tiffany. But she always had her eye on someone else, anyone else really. She tried to be faithful to her boyfriend but in the end it never worked out. And in trying to deny her true feelings, she destroyed him…literally. She had a dangerous affair with Angelus that ended in the monster being banished to hell for eternity once more. She then moved on to Lestat, a supposedly fictional character that had passed through Sunnydale out of curiosity. There was no doubt of an extreme attraction between them. Nothing physical ever occurred between them but the emotional betrayal was undeniable. Jaden had discovered her feelings for Lestat and it nearly ended their relationship forever. After a devastating fight, he severed all ties with her. A few months later she begged his forgiveness and he took her back. Caitlin was furious with Tiffany for her constant disregard of Jaden's feelings. Tiffany always went crawling back to Jaden after each affair ended badly. Tiffany didn't love Jaden and she never had. He had been her safety net. Caitlin couldn't stand the callousness (however unknowing it was) that existed inside of her friend. The last straw had been Tiffany's affair with Gerard Way, the lead singer of a popular band called My Chemical Romance. Jaden had been at the opposite end of the world when it occurred. Tiffany fell in love with Gerard and after she and Caitlin had helped the man destroy their demonic manager that had been controlling his band, she decided once and for all to be done with Jaden. And Caitlin had decided once and for all to be done with Tiffany. Jaden had been wiped off the earth. She had created him and so she could destroy him. In order to prevent any messy transition and, in her opinion, to make things better for everyone, Tiffany erased all traces of Jaden's existence from the world and from her friends' minds. After it had been done, she thought that no one would know who Jaden had been and what she had done to him, therefore freeing her to be with Gerard. But what she hadn't realized was that her power did not work on her friend, another all powerful fan fiction writer. Caitlin remembered every second of it. She never let on to Tiffany that she remembered. Instead, she moved out of the mansion and into the apartment she now shared with Max. She avoided all contact with Tiffany for 2 months. Then one day Tiffany had shown up on her doorstep. Their conversation was the briefest they had ever had in their 15 year long friendship. Caitlin remembered every word of it.

"_Hi."_

"_Hi."_

_There was a pregnant pause._

"_Gerard is leaving on a world-wide tour for a year. He asked me to go with him."_

"_So?"_

"_I'm going."_

"_Okay."_

They hadn't talked or seen each other since.

Growling, Caitlin stood up and stalked over to the computer. She needed to rid herself of the angry memories she was reliving. She opened up a file that contained a story she had written, or rather chronicled, a few years back. When she and Tiffany had begun to interfere directly with the lives of the Scoobies, the two of them had sent the group to Romania. So much wacky chaos ensued, including the violent deaths of Spike and Riley. She giggled as she read her description of Riley the Corn Demon and Spike being dusted. Continuing on through her chronicles of their earlier escapades she read her graphic description of how the two of them tortured Darla and Kate mercilessly in the basement of the mansion. Broken limbs and much blood involving evil people equaled a much lightened Caitlin.

She only wished that they could return to those days again. But that Tiffany was gone, replaced with one whom Caitlin barely knew, much less liked and trusted.

_Life really sucks sometimes._

Max walked through the door in a nervous hurry. He threw his jacket on the couch and took a deep breath. He had no idea how she was going to react to the news he had for her.

"Caitlin?" he called.

How could he tell her this? What would she do to him? She could be extremely violent when angered. She could fly into a rage. She could damage his manly apparatus! She had never agreed with the saying "Don't shoot the messenger". She could shoot him!

_CALM DOWN! _He chided himself for being so jumpy._ Take it like a man! _

"Coming" she called back.

He sighed deeply and steeled himself when he heard her footsteps on the stairs. How was he going to tell her that Tiffany was coming back to Sunnydale?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tiffany looked around nervously, as she stood outside the mansion. She had been back for a few hours, but she'd been at Gerard's apartment helping him settle in. The guys hadn't meant to return two months early but since Gerard suffered a freak accident (breaking his leg after tripping over his own mic chord) while performing at the Starland Ballroom, they had been forced to do so. Tiffany would have healed it and things would have continued as planned, but since he'd been injured in front of roughly twenty thousand people it would have been a bit suspicious to do so. The band deciding to postpone the rest of the tour, had decided that Sunnydale was the best option, since it was pretty much the non-center of the universe, and Tiffany's home town.

Deciding to take advantage of them laying low for a while (since Tiffany had healed her boyfriend's leg upon returning to Sunnydale), the band had decided to record during their time off. They had been writing and planning out their songs, but hadn't had a change to record while touring until now. Luckily, Tiffany had pulled some strings and there was state of the art studio in the town. Her friend, Suzy, worked there, running the place and directors from all over the country where flown in to do the production for the bands.

Sighing, she looked back at the mansion door, the sight of it bringing her back to the harsh reality that she was home. The reality where things with Caitlin were no better than they had been almost a year ago when she'd left.

She walked through the door and threw her luggage down. With a wave of her hand, the luggage was teleported to her room. Buffy and Angel weren't home yet, as she had expected. She called Angel about a week ago and told him when she was coming home. Buffy and Angel had taken a short vacation to Bora Bora and were planning to return before Tiffany was home. But the band ended up arriving two days earlier than Tiffany had specified to Angel.

Looking around the empty mansion, she couldn't shake the feeling of loneliness. So she turned on the TV and put the volume as loud as her ears could take and immersed herself in FUSE.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Angel had called Max earlier that day and told him what happened on the tour, how Gerard broke his leg and that Tiffany was coming home in 2 days with My Chemical Romance in tow. Caitlin's reaction to the news was surprisingly better than Max had expected it to be. Only half a dozen dishes were broken. He managed to escape with a tiny gash on his forehead from the pot she had thrown. Just one office chair was blasted out the window and only 4 neighbors called the police. It could have been so much worse. He thanked his lucky stars. Now Caitlin was on a "drink 'till your falling off your ass drunk" mission. She was already on her second bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label. Fortunately the first one was only half full and Max had taken the opportunity to fill the rest up with water. She never noticed. He was going to indulge her by letting her drink half of this one and then he was throwing all the alcohol in the house away, but he never got the chance. As soon as Caitlin had taken her third swig from the new bottle, she smashed it against the wall and stood up. Well…she attempted to stand up; she actually just ended up rolling off the couch and onto the floor. Max rolled his eyes and helped her stand.

"I ish gonna be the mansion" she slurred.

"You're going to be the mansion?" Max repeated questioningly.

She huffed and stamped her foot. "Noooooo!" she slapped him on the shoulder "I want a Snapple. Mansion is Snapple"

Max struggled to understand "We have Snapple here honey"

"But I wanna go them!" she whined.

"You want to go to the mansion you mean?"

"Yesh! God what ish wrong ith ya?"

Max shook his head exasperatingly. "Okay, okay. We'll go to the mansion"

_Anything to keep the very drunk, very uninhibited, very powerful girl happy._

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

On the ride over she had, much to Max's relief, sobered up a little bit. She wasn't slurring as much now and was able to keep herself up straight. They pulled up to the driveway and Max saw the other car. It wasn't one he had seen before. Wary of who might be in the house, Max led Caitlin up the walkway to the door.

"See we're here" he said soothingly.

"Don't treat me like a baby Max. I'm perfectly fine" she snapped at him.

Max shrugged and let go of her waist as he searched for the keys in his pocket. Without Max's arm to steady her, Caitlin took a step to the side and ended up falling into the bushes with a yelp of surprise.

Max quickly helped her back up and she brushed the leaves off her clothes.

"Easy mistake!" she protested.

Max rolled his eyes and let it go. He got the key in the door and swung it open. They were greeted with the blaring music of Taking Back Sunday.

They both cried out in pain and covered their ears to muffle the sound. It didn't work very well. Hurrying into the mansion, they found Tiffany jumping on the couch, dancing. Max came up from behind Tiffany and shoved her down on the couch. She went down with an "oof!". He then turned off the TV and the two of them sighed in relief while Tiffany pouted.

"What are you doing here?" Max shouted, his ears still ringing.

"What?" Tiffany shouted back, not being able to hear anything.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he repeated again more loudly this time.

"I came back early!" Tiffany yelled.

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"Why?" he said again, louder.

"I can't hear you!"

"WHY?" Caitlin broke in with a bellow "HE'S ASKING WHY YOU CAME BACK SO EARLY!" she gritted her teeth in exasperation.

"Oh" was all Tiffany said when she saw the girl standing there. She snapped her fingers and returned her hearing to normal. "Sorry about that"

"It's fine" Max said when he saw that Caitlin wasn't going to answer.

The ringing of the doorbell was heard, and Tiffany immediately headed towards the door. "I'll get it," she informed.

Opening the door, her eyes widened as she spotted the short young woman standing on her doorstep.

"EMILY!" she squeaked, giving the girl a huge hug, "What are you doing in here? I thought you were living in England!" She was both confused and deeply excited.

"I was but I moved her with Giles…" Emily said.

"You moved here?" Tiffany yelped, oblivious to the next half of the sentence.

"With GILES!" Caitlin asked, now confused by not only how Tiffany knew the girl on the steps, as well as why she was there with Giles of all people.

"Yes, with me," Giles stated, laughing a bit at their confused state, and stepping inside the foyer. Tiffany enveloped the British man in a hug, which he readily returned, "I've missed you, Giles, I'm sorry that I didn't get to stop by and see you when I was in England."

"It's okay," Giles assured her, "I suppose I should make introductions," he stated, as he and Emily stepped inside. This is Emily, my fiancé, whom you already know Tiffany. Emily, those lovely people are Caitlin and Max," he informed, gesturing to the pair.

"Your fiancé?" Caitlin yelped, her ocean blue eyes wide with disbelief, "She's a midget!" she looked at Tiffany accusingly, "You're always doing stuff like this! You did this didn't you! This story didn't need freakin' midget!" she yelled.

Tiffany frowned, wincing a bit at Caitlin's venomous accusation, "I didn't do this," she assured her, "and she's also an Indian! "

"An Indian? You're British, you can't marry an Indian!" Caitlin said.

"Come, come, Caitlin ,there's no reason to be rash. I know this comes as a bit of a surprise, but you could be a bit more civil." Giles said, a disapproving look overtaking his countenance.

"Indian like...wah-wah-wah," Tiffany clarified, covering her mouth with her hand to make the generic, "Indian" noise, "Not Indian like...dot on the forehead," she said, poking herself between the eyes.

"Tiffany, really must you boil every point down to it's most ridiculously blunt explanation?" Giles asked, pushing his glasses up on his nose. Tiffany just grinned.

Caitlin was still staring at Emily, intently, disbelief written all over her face. Max had yet to say anything.

"Let's just all go sit down and talk about this, shall we?" Giles coaxed, taking Emily's hand and leading the group to the couch across the room.

Caitlin opened her mouth, ready to explode when Max took her hand, "Just listen to what he has to say," he said, trying to coax her into submissiveness with (gasp!) logic.

Tiffany was already seated on the couch in front of Emily and Giles. Caitlin walked stiffly towards the couch, Max holding her hand as she went. They both sat down beside Tiffany, rather hesitantly on Caitlin's part, and waited for the inevitable insanity that was about to issue forth from Giles mouth.

Caitlin and Tiffany stared back at the pair with wide open mouths and blank expressions.

"You're kidding, right?" Tiffany asked, finally.

Giles shook his head, sipping on the cup of tea. Max had made it f or then hoping to relax the shocked girls while Giles had explained his situation with Emily.

"Okay, not to sound judgmental or anything-" Caitlin began, slowly, but Tiffany was quick to interrupt as she blurted, "Giles! She's 20 years your junior!"

"Well, yes, but Buffy and Angel are-" Giles stated, but now it was Caitlin's turn to interrupt.

"Buffy and Angel are soul mates, he's immortal and so their age difference doesn't count," she said, daring the former librarian to defy her statement.

"Caitlin," Giles removed a handkerchief from his pocket, and removing his glasses began to clean them meticulously. "Love has no age limit, you too should realize that, look at Max-"

"This isn't about us!" Caitlin defended, "This is about you dating-"

"We're engaged," Emily reminded.

"Dating a midget who's an Indian," Caitlin concluded, sitting back into the couch with a muffled thud.

"Now, wait just a minute, young lady. I won't let you talk to us that way. We're in love and that's final," Giles said, standing with his hands on his hips and looking at both Caitlin and Tiffany defiantly. Though Tiffany hadn't said anything.

"We're having a dinner to announce our engagement this evening at my home. It starts at six," Giles softened a bit, "I'd like to see you all there."

"Come, Emily, let's give them some time alone," Giles suggested.

Emily gave a nod of agreement.

"I'll see you later, Tiffany. Nice to meet all of you."

Tiffany nodded blankly, wondering once again when Gerard would be back home so she could vent a bit to him. Caitlin looked at Tiffany, "I'm not sure how, but I'm positive this is your fault." she growled, crossing her arms over her chest.

Tiffany gave a deep sigh, heading into the kitchen to fetch herself a diet coke.


	2. The Awkward Pause

**Chapter Two:**

Caitlin glanced at Tiffany, with a raised eyebrow. Tiffany returned the gaze, but neither said a word. They were sitting quietly at the kitchen table, sipping on tea Max had made (well Tiffany was…Caitlin was drinking her traditional Snapple). They hadn't spoken anymore about Giles or Emily since they'd left, and while it was obvious that Caitlin would have liked to, she refused to mention it until Tiffany did, at the risk of sounding petty. It had been almost an hour, and somehow Caitlin had restrained herself…until now.

"I can't believe this," Caitlin said finally.

Tiffany rolled her eyes, watching for the inevitable tirade.

"He can't be engaged! He's Giles!" Caitlin stated, slamming her bottle onto the table.

Tiffany winced, but Caitlin, who had stood and was now pacing, didn't notice her distress.

"I mean, maybe Emily's great-"

Tiffany inserted a 'She is great,' but Caitlin was too busy rambling to hear it.

"But he's Giles! He doesn't date or get married. He's like your father; he should be a eunuch," Caitlin continued, "It's like my dad just brought home someone 20 years his junior and yelled, 'Hey kiddo, meet your new mum!'" she stated, trying to mock Giles' British accent. Unfortunately, her anger clouded the accent and resulted in her sounding like a complete lunatic.

"Caitlin, calm down," Tiffany pleaded, running her hand through her hair. "I know it's creepy, but I don't want Giles to be upset," she stated.

"But-" Caitlin began. Tiffany, however, cut her off.

"No, for once I'm going to be the mature one, and tell you to get over it. You don't have to love it, but don't upset him. You know that he only wants our approval," Tiffany stated, now standing herself. "And I know you're going to stay here and mope, so I'm going to surprise Gerard, and I'll see you at Giles' later tonight," she said, heading up the stairs to get ready before she left.

Caitlin sat in the kitchen, sulking.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tiffany walked into the Espresso Pump with Gerard, and they immediately headed to a booth near the back, after both ordering a latte. Tiffany was on the inside of the booth, and was absently doodling on a napkin.

"Someone's chatty…" Gerard remarked.

Tiffany looked up from her napkin, almost surprised by his presence. "Yeah, sorry, just the whole Giles oddness," she said. She shrugged a bit, "But since I don't currently feel like discussing it…how was your day?"

The waitress arrived before Gerard could begin speaking, and the couple thanked her as she brought their order.

Gerard began to tell Tiffany about the latest song they'd recorded, when suddenly she sputtered and almost spewed her scalding hot latte all over herself.

Giles and Emily had been standing at the counter, ordering, and now they were kissing-quite enthusiastically, and much to Tiffany's immense horror.

"Are you okay?" Gerard asked, his hazel eyes filled with worry as he looked at her.

Tiffany shook her head violently, and tried to hide behind him in the booth. "I think I'm blind," she rasped, burying her head in his black, leather jacket.

Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful in her attempt to hide.

"Tiffany, what are you doing?" Gerard began, but was interrupted by Emily's squeak of "Tiffany!" as she reached the booth, sliding in across from her old friend. Giles followed at a leisurely pace, smiling at his fiancé's giddiness.

"Hey," Tiffany said, moving out from her position halfway behind Gerard. "Didn't see you," she mumbled, lamely.

The dark-haired vocalist looked at her curiously, and Tiffany gave him an "I'll explain later" look.

"'Ello chap," Giles greeted, offering Gerard his hand, "I don't think we've met before."

Gerard shook his hand, politely. "Yeah, you've been in England for a while or so Tiffany said-" he stated, and then continued, "I'm Gerard…"

Emily gave a squeak as she recognized Gerard, and though the squeak was small it managed to almost completely drown out Giles' reply of, "I'm Rupert Giles."

Gerard looked at Emily, slightly shaken by her outburst, but instead turned back to Giles and offered, "Nice to meet you."

Emily gave another squeak and looked back and forth between Tiffany and Gerard. "You're here together?" she asked, and her blue eyes widened suddenly. "Did you finally kidnap him?"

Tiffany closed her eyes briefly as if in physical pain, and shook her head slowly. "No, we're here together…without restraint of any kind," she said.

"Did you win a contest or something?" Emily asked, frowning.

Gerard raised an eyebrow, curiously. "No, we're dating…" he said, slowly.

Emily promptly exploded into hysterical laughter of disbelief.

Tiffany leaned her head on Gerard's shoulder, waiting for Emily to quiet her giggles. A few moments later, the giggling halted.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh," Emily said, clearing her throat, "It's just really funny since you were so insane about him, and I was always telling you how you'd never meet him, and we made that cake-"

"OKAY!" Tiffany said, loudly, not wanting to recount all the insane things she'd done in her obsessive state.

"Sorry," Emily said, sheepishly, "but I'm really happy for you." She smiled at her friend. "I'm Emily, by the way," she continued, looking at Gerard now before turning back to Tiffany.

Tiffany returned her friend's smile, and took a sip of her latte.

Giles smiled as well, "Now that we've settled down a bit," he said, taking his glasses off, as he often did when discussing an important issue. "I have yet to see Buffy, is she out of town?" he asked.

Tiffany nodded. "Yeah, she and Angel went for a short vacation,' she informed.

The brunette frowned suddenly as she studied the Englishman. "Is there an apocalypse?" she inquired.

Giles shook his head, replacing the glasses. "Not that I'm aware of," he said, giving a tiny laugh.

"Well, that's a plus at least. I think she's coming back tomorrow, though," Tiffany stated. "But unfortunately, we have to go," she said, abruptly.

Gerard looked at Tiffany, curiously, "I have to meet Caitlin and Max at the mall," she said. "Remember?" she prompted, raising an eyebrow.

Emily's face darkened suspiciously, but she didn't say anything.

"Yeah," Gerard said, nodding as he stood up and let Tiffany out of the booth as well.

"I'll see you later," Tiffany said, smiling at Giles and Emily, weakly. "Tonight at the dinner party," she stated.

'Nice to meet you," Gerard repeated, smiling once more at Emily and Giles.

"Likewise," Giles said, in his typically polite British tone.

"Bye Tiffany, bye Gerard," Emily inserted.

Tiffany reached for Gerard's hand, and then they were out the door.

Emily watched the retreating couple, her blue eyes dark with suspicion.


	3. Monsieur Sanglant

Tiffany walked beside Gerard, sipping on her vanilla frappuchino and moseying through the swarms of lemmings in the mall.

"I like frappuchinos," she stated, looking at the cup pensively. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is no bad here," she said, giving a firm nod.

"And I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're really random," Gerard stated, putting his arm around Tiffany's shoulders.

Tiffany moved closer to him, and smiled a bit. "That's why you love me, people don't attack you because they think you're escorted a mildly retarded, autistic person," she concluded.

Gerard laughed, and took sip of the frappuchino that Tiffany had offered him.

"So, what happened earlier in the coffee shop, you were freaking…" Gerard observed, as they entered Hot Topic.

"With Emily and Giles," Tiffany said, giving a nod of admittance. "I've known her forever, and Giles is like a father figure and apparently they're engaged, so to make a long story less long: it's deeply awkward."

Gerard gave an understanding nod. "You definitely have the right to feel awkward," he assured her, picking up a stick of eyeliner that had been set on the clearance counter, and after glancing at it tossed it back down, dissatisfied.

"Yeah, I don't want them to break up or anything, but I need some time to adjust. I'll see them tonight though," she said, flipping through the rack of marked down t-shirts.

A few minutes later, Tiffany burst forth with an ecstatic, "cheap shirt!" as she pulled a Dresden Dolls t-shirt from the rack, tucking it under her arm.

Gerard smiled and headed over to the counter, looking through the assortment of belt buckles.

Tiffany meandered towards the band shirts on the wall, and gave a tiny 'excuse me' as she bumped into someone.

"Sorry…" Emily stated, clearly not paying attention to whoever bumped into her. She took a few steps back towards the dressing room. "C'mon!" she yelled to her companion, who was apparently occupying the tiny room.

Tiffany turned the other way, ready to flee, but only succeeded in bumping into Gerard with such force in her efforts to escape tahtshe actually fell in the floor. "Hey there," she mumbled, humiliated.

Gerard frowned, and helped Tiffany off the ground. "Where's the fire, suga?" he asked.

"There," Tiffany said, pointing at Emily, the 'someone' she had bumped into. "Can we just go to your place after we check out, at a fevered pace?" she asked, "I would say we could go to the mansion, but Caitlin was visiting and she's probably still ranting…"

The brunette's conclusion was interrupted by Emily's loud, girlish, eardrum-piercing squeal. Tiffany blanched – Emily never screamed like a girl. She was the un-girliest girl Tiffany knew.

"What the hell?" Gerard asked, as he and Tiffany both turned to look at the girl. They had just headed over to the counter, and now turned back in the direction of the dressing room.

Tiffany, curious despite her better judgment, retraced her steps and walked towards Emily. She gulped. This was either _really_ good or _really _bad, and she and Emily didn't always see those matters in the same light.

The tiny, smiling young woman outside the dressing room was now bouncing up and down, clapping her hands and causing the chains on her bondage pants to clink together. The array of bracelets around her wrists also caught the light from overhead as she clapped. A choker and Cure t-shirt completed the shiny, jingly, and black ensemble. Tiffany took that exact moment to realize how completely opposite that Emily and Giles were, but didn't have time to ponder as she looked inside the door of the dressing room.

"OH…MY…GOD!" Tiffany yelled, and for once in her life she crumpled to the floor, _literally_ hyperventilating.

"Tiffany!" Gerard exclaimed, walking quickly over to the brunette on the floor. He kneeled beside her in the floor, trying to help her slow her breathing back to normal.

"Is she okay?" Giles inquired, taking a tedious stop towards the door of the dressing room.

"For the love of frappuchinos and mango tea DO NOT come out that door, " Tiffany wheezed, still sitting in the floor.

Giles looked at Emily, who quickly ushered the male back into the dressing room. He was dressed in a black corset top with red stitching, a pleated mini-skirt, and ripped fishnets…not to mention the 3-inch high strappy, glittery stilettos that adorned his feet. Emily closed the door loudly, giving the pair in front of her a nervous smile.

"Are you okay?" Gerard asked, as he gently pushed Tiffany's hair off her face, looking at her worriedly.

Tiffany solemnly shook her head as her boyfriend helped her to her feet. She turned to look at Emily, and pointed shakily at the dressing room door. "That goes against all laws of God and Man!" she proclaimed.

"You're overreacting," Emily said quietly, sighing.

"I AM NOT!" Tiffany said, indignantly. "You made me hyperventilate!And are those _handcuffs_?" she asked, pointing to a shiny something that was dangling from Emily's belt.

"No," Emily said, her tone conveying the fact that she was obviously lying, as she tried to hide the offending object behind her back. She only ended up making herself look more suspicious.

Meanwhile, Giles had emerged from the fitting room, holding the items he'd tried on. He was now wearing brown trousers, a navy blue sweater, and long, chocolate colored corduroy jacket. He raised an eyebrow at Gerard, who had been looking at him curiously.

"I have those in red, what size are you?" Gerard asked, pointing to the stilettos Giles was holding.

"AHA!" Emily stated victoriously, pointing at the couple.

"Pervo!" Tiffany returned, "I haven't even seen them!" She then turned to Gerard and gave a panicked, "You're really not helping!"

Gerard gave a tiny 'sorry,' and looked down at his feet.

Emily's mouth dropped open suddenly as she was smacked in the face with an epiphany. "You lied to Giles!" she said, looking at Tiffany in disbelief.

"You have him dressed in woman's clothing! _Slutty _woman's clothing!"

"Come now, I'm right here." Giles inserted, but neither heard him.

"You're not with Caitlin and Max!" Emily said, repeating once more, "You lied to Giles!" and then in a horrified, squeaky tone she continued, "and ME!"

Tiffany opened her mouth to reply, but Emily cut her off with yet another, "You lied!" and then shut her mouth with an audible click, as if all that needed to be said had been verbalized.

"He was in stilettos! I'm so not the bad guy here," Tiffany stated, crossing her arms over her chest.

"He looks good in stilettos!" Emily said in retort. "LIAR!" she added, as an afterthought.

"SLUT!"

"C'mon, Tiff, calm down and drink your frappuchino," Gerard inserted, offering her the drink he was holding in an attempt to distract her. He was, of course, ignored, as the pair yelled in unison.

"_I'M TELLING WILL!"_

"Bloody hell, you two are loud," a figure stated, peeking around the edge of the aisle and scowling. His brown eyes widened as he recognized his two friends.

"WILL!" they asked in disbelief, staring at the man who was near the end of the aisle. He nodded, still not really believing what he was seeing. Why would these two be in California, of all places? The last he'd heard, Tiffany still lived in the middle of nowhere, and Emily was briefly staying in London. He waited for the girls' reactions.

Gerard was completely lost. He shrugged, and sipped on the frothy vanilla drink, quietly. Giles sat the mass of clothes he was holding onto the shelf beside him, and proceeded to meticulously clean his glasses.


	4. William the Baffled?

There was a pause as both girls processed the information, which was shortly followed by a bout of furious activity. Both their faces lit up, as they looked first at each other, then to their other friend.

"Will!" Tiffany yelled, darting towards the male. Emily promptly squeed, and proceeded to cut Tiffany off. Jumping at Will, she wrapped her arms around the tall figure, giving him an exuberant hug.

"I feel like the bloody Beatles," he said in his British accent, returning the hug a bit hesitantly.

Before Emily could even laugh, Tiffany was doing as just she'd promised earlier. "She dressed Giles in drag!" the girl yelled, pointing at Emily.

"Well, she lied to him!" Emily inserted, stepping away from Will. Tiffany was standing before the surprise guest with her hands balled into fists and her jaw clenched.

"Okay, calm down," Will stated, slowly, "First of all, Giles? Secondly, stop yelling; I've heard the argument six times. Third, you finally got Gerard to hang out with you?"

Tiffany gave a growl of frustration and gave a quick, rambling explanation. "Yes, Giles, and I'm all powerful which I think I've told you before, but you never really listen to me, and now that I'm saying that I realize it has nothing to with what I was saying…" she took a deep, deeply needed breath and then spoke again, "Also, I'm not yelling now, and Gerard and I are dating."

Will gave a nod. "Well, isn't that dandy," he deadpanned.

"Extra dandy, now would you yell at her?" Tiffany inquired angrily, pointing at Emily.

"I'm not her father," Will said, rolling his eyes. "I'm not going to yell at her…for that," he turned to Emily, glaring a smidge. "Now, Miss Procrastinator Boots, you haven't updated your site in a _month_," he scolded. "But I have stuff for you in my car," he added, his scorn vanishing into a smile.

"Presents? She doesn't update and gets _presents!_" Tiffany growled, throwing her hands into the air.

"They're Cure Albums," Will stated, glancing at Tiffany, "I owe her."

Tiffany looked downtrodden, but knew that if Will had brought Emily _Cure Albums_… then, well, she must deserve them for some reason or another. She did write a lot of stuff for her older friend, make him graphics for his site, send him things in the mail; it made sense. Tiffany had been busy with Gerard for a year, after all. She had, however, published a book about My Chemical Romance, which sold quite well, and was an accomplishment for her.

"Even if you didn't get anything, have you ever seen Emily without her Cure quota?" Giles pondered, interrupting Tiffany's thoughts. "I've met nicer demons," he said, reminiscing, "I almost lost my manhood once…"

Tiffany gave a horrified squeak, trying not to imagine anything about Giles' manhood. "Shut up!" she said, following the statement with a high-pitched whine.

Will snickered, but Tiffany didn't allow him to reply. "Keep them occupied while I check out," she said, retrieving her t-shirts and the few accessories she'd picked out from where they'd fallen to the floor, during her small episode. Gerard once again offered Tiffany her drink, but she refused.

"Uh, we have to check out, too." Emily piped up, weakly. She knew that would only further enrage her friend.

Tiffany growled in annoyance, as she took Gerard's hand and headed over to the counter to make her purchases. Emily followed, loaded down with clothing and miscellaneous items, while Giles retrieved his items and followed Emily across the store.

Giles put his things on the counter, and Emily piled her things on top of them, throwing down a corset top of her own, another pair of bondage pants, a studded belt, a few buttons, and one Cure T-shirt. She smile at her fiancé, leaning with her back against the counter to look up at him.

"You already have that shirt," Tiffany observed, pointing at the Bloodflowers Cure shirt that was being rung up. She sipped thoughtfully on the frappuchino that she'd decided to take from her boyfriend after all.

"It ripped…in half," Emily informed, not looking at her friends as the cashier added up the items.

Will and Emily gasped simultaneously. "You let someone rip your Cure shirt?" Tiffany inquired, horrified.

"More importantly, a Cure shirt with Robert Smith's face on it?" Will inserted, practically catatonic with shock. He was staring at the tiny woman intently, expecting some story of near-death to spill forth from her at any second. However, she merely blushed, looking down in embarrassment.

"I almost died," Giles inserted, causing Tiffany and Will to stare at him. He pulled out his wallet, paying the cashier and taking the very large bag from her. Having paid for all their purchases, the group exited the store, walking out into the main lobby of the mall. "It took forever for me to make it up to her," he continued, "I had to-"

Tiffany cut the ex-Watcher off. "I beg you not to finish that sentence…" she said, wincing.

Will snickered a bit, and then sobered quite abruptly, stopping in the middle of the lobby. "What?" he frowned, confused. "Have I missed something?" he asked, looking between Giles and Emily.

"Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that not only did she have him dressed as a slut…they're engaged! She's engaged to a former librarian!" Tiffany inserted, holding her Hot Topic bag in front of her and narrowing her eyes at the couple she was speaking about.

Will paused, looking shocked and then a grin formed on his face. "Late April Fools?" he asked, grinning.

Tiffany shook her head, firmly.

"Balder's Day?"

A hint of desperation entered his tone as he looked at Emily and Giles, studying their expressions with a bewildered look firmly plastered on his own face.

Once again, Tiffany shook her head and so did Emily.

"Rash Hashanah…" Will asked, his desperation reaching its peak.

"No, we're really together…" Emily stated, as Giles tucked a piece of hair out of her face and wrapped an arm around her.

"Oh bloody hell," Will mumbled, shaking his head, as Tiffany sighed deeply. The group resumed its walking, heading toward the mall exit. He noticed that Emily and Giles were now hand in hand.

"We need to talk," Will said ominously as the quintet exited the mall, slightly blinded by the change of lighting. He was obviously talking to Emily, who immediately frowned.

"Told you! You're so in trouble…" Tiffany mocked, linking arms with Gerard.

No one said anything, but Tiffany couldn't help but smirk. "I'll see you all tonight," she said, knowing it would be best to retreat now. Then, she and Gerard were gone. They were headed to the comic book store, much to Gerard's delight.

"We must converse over Cure," Will said, somberly, watching the pair leave. Emily nodded, following Will, who was leading her towards his beloved black PT Cruiser. Giles walked with them, still holding his fiancé's hand.

"Without the librarian-" Will said, shaking his head sadly. Emily gave Giles a pleading look, but he already understood. He placed one hand on her back and gave her quick kiss on the forehead, telling her to have fun and bring Will over for dinner if she'd like. She smiled as he walked towards his own vehicle, laden with plastic shopping bags, his coat billowing slightly, and wondered how she'd managed to find such a wonderful man. She then laughed as she got into the passenger seat of Will's car, remembering the embarrassing event. He looked at her oddly. They had much to discuss.


	5. Foreshadow, Much?

Tiffany and Gerard stepped from the small comic book store, with Gerard was now flipping through a Hellboy comic. They had disappeared back into the mall, in hopes of avoiding Will, Emily, and Giles. Tiffany was helping steer Gerard through the mulling mall zombies, as he giddily read. She guided him into the Barnes and Noble, and was looking at some Irvine Welsh books when her cell phone rang.

_Burning on, just like a match you strike to incinerate…_

"Hello?" she answered, picking up another book and reading the back.

Gerard tore his vision away from the comic book he held long enough to shake his head. It was still odd to hear his voice every time his girlfriend's cell phone rang. A reply was given on the other end of the line that he couldn't hear, as he turned his attention back to the comic.

"So, are you going to Giles' house?" Tiffany asked, as she decided on two books and tucked them under her arm. She then headed over to the music section to buy the new Head Automatica album for herself, and pick up the collection of B-sides and rarities from the Cure for Emily's wedding present. She made a mental note to ask Max or Angel where she could purchase a reasonably priced codex for the former librarian.

"How can you not go? He'll be devastated if you don't go," Tiffany said disapprovingly, halting in her tracks, her eyes widening a bit.

Gerard once again lifted his eyes from the comic, and raised an eyebrow.

"Caitlin, listen to me! You know I'm weirded out by it, too. More wigged than you probably, since I've known Emily forever, but it's not about the weirdness, it's about supporting them," she reminded.

Something else was said on the other side of the line, and Tiffany sighed deeply. "I'll see you later," she said dully, flipping her phone shut with an annoyed click. She then turned to Gerard. "Come on, I have to check out and then try to catch Caitlin and attempt to convince her to go tonightm," she stated.

Gerard nodded, following her through the store as she tried to figure out what to say to convince Caitlin to attend Giles and Emily's engagement party.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tiffany and Gerard stood on Giles' front porch, waiting for someone to answer the door. Tiffany checked her watch as Gerard fidgeted with his hair, looking at his reflection in a pane of glass. She knocked again; she wasn't really that impatient, she just liked the ornate brass doorknocker on the former librarian's door.

"Hmmm…I wonder what is keeping Giles _so_ busy that he can't answer the door?" Gerard asked, mischievously, now leaning against the house and looking at Tiffany with a smirk.

"EEW! And Will is there…pervo! Stop assuming bad things! Until you walk in and see Emily and Giles-"

Tiffany immediately quieted as the door opened and Giles appeared.

"See Giles and Emily doing what?" Giles asked, smiling at Tiffany uneasiness. "You really should talk more quietly when you don't want to be overheard," he chided. Opening the door a bit further, he continued grinning, "Now come in and have some tea."

"Where's Emily?" Tiffany asked, walking inside. Giles smiled and gestured to the corner of the room as he shut the door behind him. Emily and Will were lying on the floor next to a record player and a small stack of vinyls. Tiffany could tell that they were of the Cure variety, judging by the two's soft singing and content looks. Gerard had slipped away to explore Giles' house. Giles looked at Emily, smiling, and turned back to Tiffany, and rolled his eyes.

"I'll never compete with Robert bloody Smith," he said jokingly, watching Emily and Will be-bop in the floor. Tiffany grinned mischievously, and saw Giles' expression change to one of curiosity.

"Early engagement present," she said, slipping a tube of bright red lipstick into the pocket of his apron. Giles looked down, apparently having forgotten he was even wearing an apron. He removed the lipstick and studied it skeptically, before slipping it into his pants pocket.

"Trust me," Tiffany said, giving him an omniscient look and wandering off to find Gerard.

Emily and Will had gotten of the floor, and were now sitting at the table, chatting amicably. After checking the food, Giles returned from the kitchen and took a seat next to Emily, sans apron.

A few minutes later, Tiffany walked in, followed by Gerard, who was intently immersed in a book. Tiffany sat in the other empty seat by Emily, while Gerard stood behind her, his eyes growing wide as he feverishly read the tome in his hands.

"Can I borrow this?" he asked, looking up at Giles with an anticipative expression on his face.

Giles looked up dully, his eyes on the book in Gerard's hand.

"No… what book?" he asked, growing intrigued.

"Kama Sutra," Gerard said suggestively, still not tearing his eyes away from the book. The room was awkwardly silent for a mere second, and then an explosion of accusations spilled forth.

"What?" Emily asked, trying (and failing) to stifle a nervous giggle.

Tiffany's outburst drowned out Emily's shocked inquiry. "Do you two USE that?" she said, standing and taking the offending object from Gerard. She quickly flipped through the ancient novel, but suddenly stopped, looking at the page in horror.

Will shuddered visibly as Tiffany removed a scrap of paper from its place in the book.

"Don't lose my page," Giles said sternly, watching the girl as she handled the book. Tiffany examined the paper fearfully. She would know that handwriting anywhere. It was just as she had thought.

"You're taking _notes_?" She squeaked at Giles, horrified. "Marking the page is bad enough without the detailed …IS THAT A DIAGRAM!" Tiffany continued to yell, both shocked and disgusted.

"Yes…well," Giles stammered, looking from Tiffany to Emily. He removed his glasses, and started cleaning them with a cloth he procured from his pocket.

"We're to be married soon, and I…" he trailed off, not looking up from his nervous habit. "I-I wanted to be…well-versed on the subject," he finished, putting his glasses back on. "It's not like you've bloody walked in on us or anything," Giles continued, growing slightly defensive, and then added with a smirk, "you won't have to worry about that until we're married."

After a short, tense silence, Giles spoke once more. "I'm going to go check the food," he said, tersely, walking towards the kitchen. Will sadly shook his head, trying not to process the information he'd just heard, as Gerard moved to sit at the table across from Tiffany. After he tried, and failed, to get the book from her, she passed it to Emily, who promptly got up and returned the book to its proper place.

Returning to the table, Emily sat down, only to see Will looking at her pensively.

"Emily?" he asked, smiling mischievously. "Are your feet even touching the floor? I was just wondering, what with the table being so big and all," he said, tapping the top of the table lightly.

"No," Emily said, looking down in shame. She then smiled and laughed softly as she realized that Will was only trying to lighten the mood.

Emily looked up to see Giles nearing the table, clad in an apron and oven mitts and carrying a dish of food. He sat the dish down in the center of the table, and disappeared back to the kitchen.

"He's so cute in his little oven mitts!" Emily said, smiling happily. Tiffany and Will let forth a chorus of 'aww's' while Gerard looked at the three, dumbstruck.

"How is that cute?" he asked, skeptically.

"Shut up!" Tiffany and Will yelled, simultaneously indignant.

"I'm sorry," Tiffany said to Gerard, looking at him with remorse.

"I'm not," Will said, insolently, as he looked away from Gerard and mumbled, "I wish I had someone to tell me I look cute in oven mitts."

"I'm sure you look absolutely adorable in oven mitts, dear," Emily cooed, grinning at him. He smiled sheepishly at her.

Five minutes later, Tiffany and Gerard were still arguing about the oven mitt debacle; Gerard found it a bit confusing that any time Emily said something blatantly stupid or creepy, it was found to be quite endearing and aww-worthy by Tiffany and Will. Tiffany insisted that Emily was all-around adorable, and therefore could say odd things and still be considered so, and that they affectionately called her 'freak' for a reason. The two ended their conversation when Giles returned with the rest of the meal, a stack of plates, and silverware.

After placing his load on the table, Giles resumed his seat by Emily. He kissed her lightly on top of her head, and the five began to eat, chatting comfortably. After they finished, and had given their praise to the chef, the group relocated to the living room. Emily and Will reclaimed their seats on the floor by the vinyl collection, with Tiffany and Gerard sitting on the nearby couch, while Giles tended to the fireplace.

As they put on another of the vinyls that Will had so graciously bestowed upon Emily, Gerard wandered over to the record player. He surveyed Giles' vinyl collection, his eyes brightening and dulling as he skimmed the titles. Emily glanced up at him with a worried expression on her face.

"Gerard!" she warned, in a hushed voice, "_I _barely get o touch those. Unless you want a very angry Giles, I'd back up about four inches and try not to breathe too hard."

Gerard shrugged, taking a tiny step backwards and resuming his inspection. After a few seconds, however, his eyes lit up like Will in a Girl Scout cookie factory, and he reached out to the shelf.

"The Black Album by the Beatles! I didn't even know copies of this still existed!" he exclaimed, the awe present in his voice.

"GERARD!" Tiffany yelled, getting up from the couch, only to be halted by Will, as Giles walked angrily towards the drooling male.

"Ripper, no!" Emily said, getting up and interposing between him and the clueless rock star. He tried to walk around her, but she held her ground.

"Calm down," she said, softly, "He hasn't hurt it in any way, it'll be fine."

As if on cue, Gerard started to take the vinyl out of its cover, seemingly blind as well as deaf to his surroundings.

Giles carefully moved Emily aside before advancing on Gerard. Mere inches from the singer's face, he started his tirade.

"Do you have any idea how much that vinyl cost? It's a first edition, signed by John _and_ Paul! It still has the original slipcover! And that's not even the rarest that I possess, there are far rarer, more valuable albums residing on those shelves. My vinyl collection is worth more than your last record deal, Mr. Way, and that is by no means an exaggeration. I would advise you quite strongly not to go near it in the future. And as long as we're discussing things that are of limits, you can keep your hands off my books, my weapons, my tweed, and my fiancé-or suffer a long and torturous death. Understood?"

Tiffany smiled viciously from the couch, adding, "you don't have to worry about the fiancé part, Giles, because if he ever so much as thinks about it, I'll make him a eunuch in the most painful way possible. Not that I think he would or anything, but just to clarify…"

Gerard, who had been visibly cowering throughout the ordeal, quickly handed the offending vinyl back to Giles, who inspected it carefully before he placed it back on the shelf.

"Let's forget that ever happened, shall we?" Giles said cheerily, sitting down on the couch opposite the fireplace. He wrapped his arm around Emily as she sat down next to him, cuddling against his chest.

"Yeah," Gerard said, still slightly shocked as he sat next to Tiffany on the couch. She took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze as well as a soft smile. Will remained in the floor, and resumed listening to the Cure. Emily and Tiffany smiled as they watched him happily absorbing the tunes, with Emily listening as well.

Soon Tiffany and Gerard were chatting quietly about the record he was recording, with Emily occasionally commenting or asking a question. She had her eyes closed and was dozing off slightly on Giles during the less loud parts of the conversation.

"I think she's asleep," Gerard said, gesturing to Emily. There had been several mentions of her favorite bands throughout their conversing, but she hadn't stirred or even opened here eyes. Giles raised his eyebrows quizzically, and looked down, absently playing with the girl's hair.

"I don't know," the older man said, cautiously, "she's fooled me before."

Tiffany nodded in agreement, and Gerard shrugged. The vinyl that Will had been playing stopped, but he continued sketching in the notebook he'd procured sometime during the evening. Emily made a small noise in her sleep, moving restlessly as the clicking of the record player roused her from her slumber. Giles gently moved her to a more comfortable position on his lap, so that her head rested on his chest, with her back against the arm of the couch. He grinned as she snuggled closer to him, her breathing evening out against as she slipped back into slumber.

Will chuckled at the pair as he looked up from his sketch, resisting the urge to 'aww' as Giles removed Emily's glasses and pushed a stray lock of hair from her face. Shifting his gaze to the opposite couch, the British man noticed Tiffany and Gerard were furiously writing in notebooks of their own--apparently a story and song were being born. After watching for a few moments, he turned back to his sketch.

_That bloke can bloody draw, _Giles thought, as he noticed the progression of Will's sketch. The former librarian observed the rapid creativity of his fiancé's friend. He toyed with her hair as he absentmindedly hummed.

He was soon startled from his silent reverie, however, as Emily giggled into his chest. The others looked at the pair questioningly as Giles tilted Emily's chin up with his index finger to look at her face.

"What's so funny, love?" he asked as she smiled up at him, barely containing her laughter.

"You were humming the Cure. 'Friday, I'm in Love' to be specific," she said, grinning. "I've officially corrupted you."

Will, Tiffany, and Gerard laughed. Giles had been humming so softly they hadn't even heard him. Just as the man opened his mouth to form a witty retort, there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" Tiffany offered, crossing the room to answer the door. As she opened it, a small flood of people rushed inside, talking loudly.

"I-we didn't know! You should have sent a card, or an invitation, or… you have a phone! I know you do!" Willow lectured, shaking her pointer finger at Giles.

"Yeah!" Xander said, pointedly, while Faith rolled her eyes.

"We came as soon as we found out," Faith explained, "but Caitlin didn't tell us until roughly 10 minutes ago."

Willow and Xander nodded, looking curiously at Giles and Emily.

"I don't think she wanted us to come," Willow said, looking apologetically at Giles. "Sorry that we're late."

"It's quite alright. I think maybe it's just a bit soon, anyway. Everyone's still in a slight state of shock. We'll just have the party later after everything settles down a bit," he paused for a moment, then gestured towards the unoccupied portion of the couch he and Emily were sitting on. "Have a sit, we've still got plenty of time before we plan on patrolling."

Xander promptly sat down on the couch by Giles, followed by Willow. Faith scowled, and took a seat at the end of the couch, propping her elbow on its arm and leaning her head on her hand. Willow looked around, noting the small changes in Giles' apartment since her last visit, while Xander looked questioningly between Giles and Emily.

"Well, hello there," he said suggestively, looking at Emily. "Giles didn't tell us that the object of his affection had a beautiful daughter, who just happened to be our age," he added, shooting Giles an accusatory look as he fawned over Emily.

An epidemic of coughing overcame Tiffany, Gerard, and Will, as Xander continued to dig himself into a deeper hole. Faith smirked, taking an interest in the new conversation, as Willow looked worriedly at Xancer.

"I mean, it's kinda creepy that she'd be cuddled up on her almost-step dad's lap, but who am I to judge?"

Giles had taken off his glasses, and had a hand over his face rubbing his eyes. Emily simply closed her eyes and buried her head in Giles' chest again, not looking at Xander. Her fiancé wrapped his free arm around her, pulling her slightly closer.

"I'm older than you," the girl said into Giles' sweater, annoyed. The British man replaced his glasses, stroking Emily's hair comfortingly.

Xander's smile faded a bit, then perked back up as he asked, "How much ol-"

"Xander, I'd like you to meet my fiancé," Giles said, in an exasperated tone, cutting off the younger man.

Xander's mouth dropped open as he gaped like a fish, which was a trait that Faith and Willow took on as well. Willow was the first to recover, and smiled, happy that the former Watcher had found someone. Faith merely smirked. Xander, however, continued to babble incoherently.

"But…she's …you're…librarian…not fair…how!"

"I think that's a story for a later date," Giles said, retrieving Emily's glasses from the table and handing them to her.

"Why am I cursed by the female race?" Xander mumbled. His statement was drowned out by Willow's bubbly comment about the pair being adorable in their glasses.

"HA!" Tiffany yelled, triumphantly, "I'm not the only one who thinks you're soul mates because you both wear glasses."

Willow beamed at her, as Will laughed, clutching the side of his chest.

"Oh, by the way, that's Will," Tiffany said, gesturing to the laughing man. "And will, these guys are Xander, Faith, and Willow," she continued pointing to the couch.

The four traded courtesies for a moment before Tiffany and Gerard joined in the conversation, and soon it was as if they'd all known each other since grade school. Emily and Giles slipped out of the room as the group chattered amicably.

Twenty minutes (and an extremely funny story about Gerard that somehow involved a polar bear) later, Tiffany noticed the pair's absence, and mentioned it discretely to Will.

"I don't know," he said, looking around the room, "But I've got to find the bathroom. Any suggestions?"

"I think you have to go through the dining room," Tiffany said, "And then I'm thinking down the hallway, first door to the left."

William smiled and graciously thanked her, walking towards the kitchen. The group continued their conversation, laughing at one of Xander's jokes.

Suddenly an alarmed yell came from the kitchen, followed by Will's voice.

"Bloody hell! We just ate on that table!" he shouted. A few moments later, he walked out of the kitchen holding a diet coke and shaking his head, muttering about his eyesight.

"I hope the table's sturdy," Gerard said, chuckling slightly. The group looked at him suspiciously before changing the subject. He shrugged, wrapping his arm around Tiffany, while trying to avoid Faith's perpetual glare.

Soon after Will's explosion, Emily and Giles re-entered the room, looking only slightly mussed. Emily sought out Will, wrapping her arms around his shoulders in a backwards hug as he sat on the floor nursing his soda.

"Sorry," she whispered, leaning over his shoulder. He patted her hand, lightly. Emily was one of the few people whom Will allowed himself to be hugged by.

"It's okay," he said, as she removed her arms from his person and stood up properly. "I'm just glad it's him and not one of those guys you used to swoon over," he added, shuddering at the remembrance of some of the less-than-wonderful guys Emily had dated.

Faith smirked as she looked between the whispering pair.

"So, Giles isn't enough? You've gotta have tall, dark, and gothic here too?" she asked, grinning evilly as she gestured from Emily to Will and back again.

A harsh silence fell over the room, which lasted all of two seconds. Emily and Will looked at each other and burst into fits of hysterical laughter. Tiffany, Giles, and Gerard soon followed suit.

"What?" Faith asked, indignantly, as the group continued laughing. "They're all cuddly, lovey-dovey, and none of you think there's somethin' more goin' on there?"

Her statement only made the group laugh even harder. Willow looked nervously at Xander, but he merely shrugged and pointed to the couch opposite them, where Tiffany appeared to be hyperventilating (but in fact, was only laughing). Will was lying on his back in the floor, shaking with laughter, as Gerard unsuccessfully tried to calm his girlfriend's hysterics. Emily sat on the other end of the couch, trying to help Gerard with Tiffany between fits of her own laughter.

"There's no way," Will said, sitting up slightly as he continued to laugh. "Could you imagine our it? Our kids running around, little shaggy-haired demon spawn wearing frock coats and lipstick? It'd be a riot!" he finished, his eyes growing wide as he mentally pictured exactly what he'd said.

Tiffany burst into another loud bout of laughter, as Giles shot past her, toward Emily, a mere sweatered blur diving in front of the couch. Emily fell into his arms, laughing hysterically. Her hero sat in the floor with his back against the couch, still holding his charge. His worried expression faded, replaced by a smile as he shifted Emily to a more comfortable position in his lap. After a few minutes, the group's laughter died out, leaving an odd, short-lived silence.

"You're dumb," Tiffany said, giddily, looking at Faith, who raised an eyebrow in challenge to the girl's comment. Tiffany sank backwards into the couch, the smile disappearing from her face as she moved closer to Gerard.

"Don't pay attention her," Gerard said, lightheartedly, wrapping an arm around his fearful girlfriend. "She often says dumb things when she's laughing, or…um…" the musician trailed off, looking innocently around the room with a huge smile plastered on his face, silently pleading for someone in the room to save them from the angry brunette.

"Oh, wow, look at the time!" Willow announced, loudly, staring at her watch-less wrist. "We'd better get going, guys, we've got to um…research! For that…uhh…demon…Buffy saw," she stammered anxiously, pointedly smiling at the Faith and Xander.

"But Will, we did that yes-" Xander started, but his correction was interrupted by Willow, who covered his mouth with her hand and smiled innocently.

"Let's go," she said seriously, letting go of her oblivious friend's face, and pointedly looking at Faith.

"Yeah," Xander said, catching on a bit."Research…we fight the bad."

Xander got up from the couch, offering his arm to Willow. "Ready to go, research buddy?" he said humorously.

Willow took his arm, looking questioningly at the third member of their party.

"Earth to Faith," Xander chimed, waving his free hand in front of her face. The intimidating girl rose from the couch, glaring daggers at the others.

"Whatever…" she said, moodily, rolling her eyes. "I'd rather be anywhere other than sitting her with Mr. Librarian and his band of pretty boys, complete with the crazed roadie and slutty girlfriend," she paused for effect, and then continued, "OH! I forgot… _fiancé_. It's easy to get confused, but then I guess it's gotta be cheaper to marry her than to adopt her."

"I'll have you know," Giles started, angrily, but was cut short in his tirade by the furious girl in his lap. He quickly wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him in restraint as she struggled to get at Faith.

"You fuc-" Emily started to yell in rage, but Will's hand quickly appeared, covering her mouth.

"Bloody hell!" he screeched, glaring at Faith. "You've done it now! Nearly made her drop the F-bomb, are you daft? Do you know what you're getting yourself into? She never gets mad, but boy, when she does, she does it royally…" he said, looking at Faith with a mixture of dislike and pity.

"Yeah, angry midget-bad," Tiffany said, sounded quite narrative.

A muffled sound came from Will's hand, and the group looked at Tiffany inquisitively.

"She said she's 5' 3"," Tiffany translated. She turned to Faith, "I think you should leave."

Faith smirked coyly. "Really? What for?"

Tiffany opened her mouth to speak, but Giles beat her to it, his British charm evaporating as he lashed out.

"If you don't bloody get out of my house right now, I'll let her go," he quipped, relaxing his hold on Emily. He caught his fiancé as she lunged, pulling her back. Will was sitting on the couch by the pair, his hand still covering his friend's mouth. He looked over at Willow and Xander, who were standing by the door watching the exchange.

"Get her out of here now," he said, firmly, turning back to his friend.

Xander moved from the door to where Faith was standing a few feet away. He put his hand on her arm.

"While I love a good cat-fight as much as the next guy, I think we'd better go," he said, pulling her towards the door. He desperately hoped she wouldn't decide to hit him in the face and then go after the girl in the floor.

Faith shook Xander off, glaring first at him, then at Emily. She stalked towards the door, walking out and slamming it as she left. Giles relaxed his hold on Emily after the door shut, and Will stood up, removing his hand from her face.

"The nerve…" Emily snapped, then trailed off and muttered under her breath.

"We'll just be going now," Xander said, opening the door as he prepared to flee.

Willow smiled and waved as she said her goodbyes, following him out the door and closing it much more politely than the former exitee had done.

Giles sighed, and leaned his head against the couch, relieved. Will left the room, muttering something about how he never found the bathroom as he walked off. Meanwhile, Gerard, who had been silent through the entire encounter, burst into a fit of schoolgirl-like giggling. Giles looked at him sharply.

"Why the bloody hell are you _giggling _like a little ponce?" He asked demeaningly.

"You guys act like it's such a big deal, when she's like this big," he said, gesturing to Emily, and then making her out to be the size of that of a small mouse.

"You laugh, but you haven't the foggiest notion of what would have happened if I had let her go," Giles said, slightly annoyed.

Tiffany chimed in to back up Giles. "Yeah," she concluded, "Don't be fooled by her tiny and feeble appearance. She can hold her own; it's her intense midget fury, trust me."

Gerard grew silent, and soon Will returned, bearing a cup of tea and a Mountain Dew. He handed Emily and Giles their respective fixes, helping Emily up so that Giles could drink his tea properly. Emily gulped half of her caffeine-enriched goodness as she sat on the couch, her mood lightening a bit. Will sat beside her, nursing another Diet Coke, and the room was patiently quiet as Giles finished his tea.

"Okay," he announced, getting up and turning towards the others. "It's time to patrol. I'll go get the weaponry. Can you all clean up a bit?"

Tiffany and Emily cleared away the tea and tidied things up a bit, finishing just before Giles' return. He walked into the room, carrying his trustworthy bag, along with a crossbow and two swords.

"Ohhh, shiny," Tiffany exclaimed, reaching out her hands towards one of swords.

Giles almost handed it to her, but stopped. Tiffany's excitement visibly faded, then perked back up as he handed her the crossbow.

"Don't shoot me," he said, tersely, eyes on the brunette before him. She nodded happily, doing a small victory dance as Giles passed one of the swords to Will and distributed stakes to everyone in the group.

Will looked questioningly at Giles, holding up the sword. It sparkled brilliantly in the light, stainless with a hilt that might have had rubies encrusted in it. Will inspected the sword, balancing it perfectly on one finger between the blade and the hilt, before throwing it in the air and catching it.

Giles nodded approvingly. "I knew you'd appreciate that one," he said, slicing the air with his own sword. "Emily tells me you're quite the expert."

"Well, I wouldn't say expert," Will started, almost bashfully.

"Oh, pish-posh, accept the compliment," Giles said good naturedly, as he met Will's sword with his own. "We'll have to have a go sometime when we haven't work to do," he said, taking the sword back from Will. He quickly went left the room to return the swords to their proper place, explaining as he went that they were too cumbersome for conventional patrol.

Returning, Giles gave a small smile to the group. "Okay, are we all ready then?" he asked, surveying them once more. He double-checked his bag, and then slung it over his right arm, offering his left to Emily. She took it, smiling as they walked out the door. The others quickly followed them out the house, and they headed towards the nearest cemetery.


	6. Party in the Graveyard

Tiffany walked through the darkened cemetery alongside Will, Giles, Emily and Gerard. They weren't really talking much, trying to listen for the sound of vampires, and have some semblance of an advantage. Tiffany had been on patrol a few times, but she was usually with the slayer, and at least one vampire. The all-mortal patrol party was leaving her a bit on edge, even if she was all-powerful.

The tense girl was drawn out of her thoughts as a limb cracked behind them. She raised her crossbow instinctively, and pivoted towards the noise. Gerard took a curious step towards it as well, peeking around the nearest mausoleum, but saw nothing.

Shrugging, Tiffany continued walking. Will and Emily were discussing something in low tones, while Giles and Tiffany surveyed the rows upon rows of headstones. Gerard trailed slightly behind the quartet, walking at a leisurely pace and quietly humming bits of the new song he was working on.

Seconds later, a cry of surprise was heard from behind the group. Tiffany turned, recognizing it as Gerard's voice. She looked around, but didn't see anything. Noticing a sudden movement, she looked down, to see two figures fighting amidst the headstones. The rock star was currently rolling around on the ground with a familiar vampire.

"STOP IT!" Tiffany shrieked, but her efforts were futile. The attacker wasn't listening, and had now pinned Gerard to the ground, with a stake raised above the pale rockstar's head. Gerard's hazel eyes were wide with fear and worry as he tried to escape.

Tiffany heard Giles issue an 'oh, my' from behind her, and jolted into action. "ANGEL, STOP!" she screamed, rushing over to the two men.

Angel turned and looked at Tiffany, his face in full vampire visage. "Tiffany? What are you doing out here?" he inquired. The vampiric attributes faded from his face as his brown eyes stared at her inquisitively.

"Patrolling!" she said angrily. "Now get off of him! Just because he's pale doesn't mean he's a vampire. He's wearing makeup! Get off of him," she repeated, staring down at the vampire with a demanding glare.

Angel looked back at Gerard, who gave a nervous smile, and the vampire climbed up off the ground. Offering Gerard his hand to help him off the ground, he gave a bit of a shrug, mumbling, "sorry."

"No problem," Gerard lied, obviously shaken as he waited for his breathing began to return to normal. Tiffany immediately moved around Angel and to her boyfriend's side. "Are you okay?" she asked, worriedly.

Gerard nodded, and Tiffany took his hand, giving it a squeeze, before turning back to Angel. "You really know how to greet a person don't you, Angel?" she grumbled. He smiled at her sheepishly.

"Angel, this is my _boyfriend_, Gerard, and Gerard, this is my overly aggressive friend, Angel," she volunteered.

Gerard and Angel simply nodded at one another. There was a tense, pregnant moment as the group looked around, surveying each other. Angel still didn't know who the short girl following Giles was, never mind the tall, mysterious man with the comic book.

Suddenly, Buffy appeared from behind the mausoleum. Two others - Max and Caitlin, followed her shortly. Caitlin dusted ashes off the front of her shirt as they stopped before the group, sending up small, greyish-white clouds.

"I think I swallowed an entire vampire," she grumbled, coughing. Buffy gave her an apologetic look, but the girl seemed to miss it as she surveyed the large group assembled before her.

"Party in the cemetery," Max mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. He stood beside Caitlin, ready to intervene if her temper should get the best of her.

"You're here?" Caitlin inquired, pointing at Emily, before she turned to Giles. "You take her on patrol? She's like 2 feet tall!" she stated, bitterly.

"Nice to see you again, too, Caitlin," Emily inserted, looking sadly at the ground. She sighed, disappointed; she'd never be good enough for Giles' friends, no matter what she did.

Caitlin just looked at the shy girl disapprovingly, deciding not to respond to her comment.

"Caitlin, I can assure you that she is completely versed in the responsibilities that patrolling entails," Giles said defensively, taking up for his fiancé. He gave Caitlin a stern look, opening his mouth to speak again.

"That's Giles-speak for: _she has super midget stealth, and can hold her own_," Tiffany interrupted.

"Whatever," Caitlin said, shooting a glare in Tiffany's direction. She did, however, decide not to say anything more to push the issue, since dealing with an angry Giles wasn't the smartest -or safest- thing to do.

Tiffany looked at Caitlin, curiously, wondering what was bothering her now. The lighter-haired girl seemed not to catch the look…or at least ignored it. Tiffany had noticed that Caitlin talked to her only when she absolutely had to lately - and even then, it was usually laced with venom. She hadn't seen the girl in almost a year, and still, their friendship had only gotten worse over time. She tried not to dwell on it.

"So, when did you guys get back?" Tiffany asked, deciding to lighten the mood as she looked at Buffy and Angel.

"A few hours ago," Buffy answered, smiling at Tiffany. She then seemed to notice Gerard for the first time. "Who are you?" she inquired, noting that he looked oddly familiar. Her forehead furrowed in confusion, as she tried to place why he seemed so recognizable.

"My boyfriend, you know the one I've been touring the world with," Tiffany stated, returning the Slayer's smile. "The one that your boyfriend attacked because he thought he was a vampire," she informed, giving Angel a pointed look. He mumbled another apology before looking away.

"Well, nice to meet you…" Buffy trailed off, fishing for a name, since one hadn't been provided as of yet.

"Gerard" the dark-haired vocalist informed her.

"Gerard…like _'I make out with boys and am in a band'_ Gerard?" Buffy asked, suddenly realizing that _that_ would explain his familiarity.

Gerard looked at Tiffany, smirking a bit, but she averted her gaze.

"Though, I don't frequently make out with men…yes, that's me," Gerard stated, a small smile forming on his lips.

Giles and Angel were both looking at him with a mixture of disbelief and confusion on their faces.

"You're Tiffany's boyfriend, but you kiss other …men?" Angel prodded.

Tiffany nodded. "Right! Now, can we please pick a different topic-like Emily and Will-they're new!" she said enthusiastically, trying to change the subject. Gerard smiled at Tiffany, taking her hand in his and squeezing it.

"You're Giles' fiancé?" Buffy asked, looking at the new arrival. She couldn't believe what she was seeing; the girl must be in her early twenties, and Giles was… how old? She didn't even want to think about it.

Emily nodded, smiling shyly. "And you're the Slayer. I'm Emily, though they call me a various assortment of other things around here, as well," she said, smirking at her two closest friends. A distinct cough of 'Midget' and 'Indian' was heard from Tiffany's vicinity, and a call of 'freak!' was heard before Will cleared his throat, quite loudly.

"Buffy," the Slayer volunteered, laughing slightly at the nicknames Emily donned.

"Nice to meet you. And this is Will; he's in town for a bit, on business. He's a friend of Tiffany and myself," Emily introduced, gesturing to William.

"Hey, Will," Buffy offered, nodding at the male.

"'Ello' he stated, giving a vestige of a smile before turning away once again, surveying the scenery around them. Like Emily, he wasn't one for crowds.

"Okay," Caitlin spoke suddenly, interrupting the conversation. "I think we're probably scaring away the creepy crawlies with this kind of a gathering. So, we should split up," she suggested, though it was obvious to everyone that the suggestion was more of a command.

"She's right, we should split up. We'll cover more ground," Buffy informed, "And I don't think that vampires will be as friendly if we're all standing around, they might decide to go chew on someone that's not, you know...us – so we'd better break up this little shin-dig."

Everyone agreed, and the group split up, heading off in separate directions. Buffy and Angel headed to the left, while Gerard and Tiffany wandered towards a more tombstone-populated area. Caitlin and Max ventured off to the right, with Max trying to calm a visibly seething Caitlin. Emily and Giles walked hand-in-hand on their way to the oldest part of the cemetery. Will stood alone after the group had hurriedly dispersed, looking around forlornly.

"Uhh…guys?" he asked, but unfortunately, he was already very much by himself. He sighed, looking around to see if anyone still might be in the area.

"Dammit," he muttered, nervously playing the stake in his hand. He decided to make a quick sweep of the cemetery, before heading into a crypt to wait for the others to finish their own patrols.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"They hate me!" Emily whined, hitting the stake she held against the palm of the opposite hand, nervously. She and Giles were now walking through the most ancient part of the cemetery. If she weren't so upset, she would've appreciated the desolate beauty of it, and admired the wrought iron gates they passed on their stroll. As it were, her vision was blurred as she blinked back tears, trying not to let them fall. Giles stopped, turning to face her.

"They don't hate you, love, they don't know you," her fiancé corrected. He placed his arm around her shoulders, and pulled her close to him, tucking her against his chest.

Emily snuggled into his warmth, despite her worry. "You think that'll make a difference?" she asked, looking up at him, her blue eyes meeting his. He could clearly see her worry, though their only light source was the moon.

"I'm sure of it," he stated, pulling out of the hug slightly, as he lead her towards a mausoleum. "Now, I think I heard something…in there," Giles stated, a hint of a smirk forming on his lips.

Emily looked up at the stone building. It was gorgeous, but she really didn't want to get trapped inside it with a vampire, especially if there was still a corpse in there. She frowned, before noticing Giles' mischievous smirk.

"Yeah, we'd better check it out," she stated, smiling.

"Certainly," Giles agreed, as she slid her hand into his, letting herself be lead to the centuries-old structure. They opened the rusted door and entered the mausoleum, bathing it in slivers of moonlight. Giles pushed the door closed behind them, making sure it was still open slightly. He didn't want them to get trapped inside, but he didn't want anyone looking in, either.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tiffany looked at Gerard. "He could have killed you!" she stated. Her eyes were wide as she issued the statement for what seemed like the millionth time.

"But he didn't," her boyfriend countered, logically.

Unfortunately, she was beyond hearing.

"But he _could _have!" Tiffany stated, "He's a vampire, isn't he supposed to know if someone else is a vampire? He's like 712 zillion years old, and he can't take _two seconds _to check for someone's pulse?"

"It's not that big of a deal, suga," Gerard tried to assure her. Tiffany didn't reply this time, as she settled into sulky silence. She looked around the cemetery, still holding her cross bow.

"There aren't even any vampires," she pouted.

"Oh, no, we're not in peril…how _ever_ will we survive?" Gerard asked, sarcastically. Tiffany sighed and plopped down on the ground, leaning against a nearby headstone. She placed her crossbow beside her, and leaned her head back to look up at the stars.

"Our lives aren't like other peoples," she mumbled.

Gerard shed his jacked and sat down beside her, looking up at the dark sky. She immediately moved so that she was leaning on his shoulder, still surveying the stars. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her a bit closer to him as they sat in comfortable silence.

"I wouldn't want my life any other way," Gerard informed, softly breaking the quiet moment.

Tiffany gave him a soft smile as he leaned in to give her a passionate kiss.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Will trudged along, bored and humming random songs by New Order. His nervousness had faded a bit, since he had yet to encounter a vampire, and the fact that the Slayer was within hearing distance helped him to relax - even if only a tad.

He spotted a beautiful mausoleum nearby, with the door slightly cracked. _Emily would love it_, he thought, as he walked towards the ancient structure. He pulled a Hellboy comic from his back, glancing at the cover - it was Gerard's comic book. A smirk flitted onto his features. "Bloke shouldn't have left it on the table" he said to himself, slipping quietly inside the mausoleum and sitting down against the wall. He read for a few moments, flipping the pages as he quickly absorbed the comic. Hearing an odd noise, the comic-fiend looked up, scanning his surroundings. It was quite dark in the building, with small patches of moonlight only seeping in through the cracks and the open door. His eyes landed on a few footprints on the dusty floor, and he noticed something out of the corner of his eye - and then a few more somethings.

"Weapons bag…Converse…stake…glasses? Cure T-shirt! OH GOD!" he yelled, jumping off the floor. He quickly grabbed his bag and rushed out the door, running into the cemetery and away from the offending mausoleum.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Caitlin walked alongside Max "I can't believe that Giles takes her on patrol. And who's that Will guy? 'Hey, we're bored so let's tell everyone there are vampires and go hunt them?' What the hell is up with that?" she asked.

Max started to reply, and then looked at Caitlin. "I heard something," he stated, softly.

Caitlin frowned, and looked towards the next row of headstones. "I'll go that way, you go this way," she gestured.

Max nodded, and they separated. Caitlin went around a rather large headstone and let out a cry of surprise, followed by a loud expletive.

Tiffany pulled away from Gerard. "Hey there, Caitlin," she stated, embarrassed, as Gerard looked around for his leather jacket. Caitlin turned without a word, and stormed away from all of them-including Max, who quickly followed after her.

"Stupid people! Who makes out in a cemetery?" she yelled. "They could get eaten! Do they even care? No! Fuckin' retards are so obsessed with their hormones they can't go ten minutes without making out. Hi, my name's Tiffany, I'm a slut and my boyfriend likes to makes out with guys, and we enjoy having sex in cemeteries," she mocked, completely exaggerating in her rage.

She was so busy with her tirade that she didn't notice someone walking towards her, and bumped straight into the figure.

"Ouch-" Caitlin mumbled with a frown. She then realized it was the new guy, Will. Taking in his disheveled appearance and fast pace, she frowned suddenly.

"Giles and Emily?"

"Tiffany and Gerard?"

The two figures asked the questions in unison, and both gave a disgusted nod. They shook their heads, as Max came to a halt beside Caitlin.

"I'm ready to go home, and hope I go blind," she stated.

Will once again nodded. "That sounds like quite a marvelous plan…"

They headed towards where Giles' car was parked, deciding to wait there for everyone else to assemble. Once there, Will leaned up against the side of the car, pulling out his comic book, while Caitlin and Max talked a few feet away.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The group slowly filed into the mansion. Buffy and Angel had invited everyone back to their home after patrol; they had decided that it was better to discuss all of the changes that had taken place in a more suitable place than a cemetery.

"Anyone want anything to drink?" Tiffany inquired, heading towards the door of the kitchen. She paused there, leaning against the doorframe as she awaited their responses.

"Coke…"

"Diet Coke…"

"Green Tea…"

"Snapple…"

"Water…"

"Water…"

"Water…" came the avalanche of replies.

"Can you help me, Gee?" Tiffany asked, afraid she would drop something. She normally would have asked Caitlin for assistance, but the girl hadn't even looked at her since her comment in the cemetery, and had only spoken to voice her want of a Snapple.

"Sure," he agreed, standing and following her into the kitchen.

"Try not to have sex while you're in there," Caitlin muttered, causing Angel and Buffy to look at her curiously. The girl simply averted her gaze, not bothering to explain.

Buffy turned to Giles. "So, how long have you been seeing Emily? And why didn't I know?" she asked, frowning a bit.

"We've been seeing each other for quite a while actually, but you are always under so much stress, and I was quite sure you wouldn't like it. Also, I thought it would be better for you to actually meet her…"

"Okay, so it was all for my benefit…great," Buffy interrupted, the sarcasm evident in her tone, before she looked at Emily. "So, you're here for good? You're getting married for real?"

Emily nodded, smiling brightly. "Absolutely."

Tiffany and Gerard emerged then, loaded down with beverages. Tiffany handed Caitlin her Snapple, passing the Coke to Buffy, and the Diet Coke to Will. Gerard handed Max, Giles, and Angel their waters, and Emily her Green Tea. The couple then sat down on the massive overstuffed chair, across from the couch that Max, Caitlin, Buffy, and Angel were occupying. Giles and Will sat on another couch nearby. Emily sitting in the floor in front of them, leaning back against Giles.

Tiffany sipped on her own bottle of Diet Coke, and then leaned her head once again on Gerard's shoulder. He snatched her bottle away and took a large drink, causing Tiffany to give him a faux glare.

Angel looked at Will, asking, "And you're Emily and Tiffany's friend?"

The male gave a nod, but Buffy spoke up before he could elaborate. "So, you're here …why?" she asked, curiously.

"Officially… for a business trip," Will explained. "Unofficially… for a concert later this week."

"What concert?" Tiffany asked, frowning.

"The one that the Cure is playing with your favorite band, assuming they're still your favorite," Will grinned. Emily's mouth dropped open.

Tiffany looked at Gerard. "You didn't tell me you guys were playing a show. I haven't seen you guys play in a while," she stated, frowning a bit.

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Yeah, a whole month," she muttered, her tone sarcastic.

Tiffany chose not to reply, but pouted a bit at Caitlin's bitter behavior. She looked curiously at her friend in the floor, who was seething. It wouldn't be long before-

"That's not the point!" Emily suddenly yelled, "THE POINT IS HE'S PLAYING A SHOW WITH ROBERT SMITH!" She turned to Will, calming slightly before interrogating him. "Why did I not know about this? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I figured you knew," Will stated, flippantly.

"Well, I didn't…" Emily said. She opened her mouth to continue, but was interrupted by Caitlin.

"Emily, what happened to your neck?" the girl inquired, with mixed expressions of worry and disgust.

"What?" Emily asked, lifting her hand to her neck.

"No one the other side," Caitlin corrected. "Did a vamp get you?"

Emily shook her head, a bit confused, "huh?"

"There's a bite mark on your neck," Caitlin said, exasperated. Emily blushed, covering her mouth as she giggled.

Giles grinned sheepishly and pulled his glasses off to clean them. "No, not a vampire…" he said, laughing cheerfully.

"Emily," Tiffany began, but stopped, as her eyes widened with complete realization. "Okay, anyone for vomit?"

Several hands went up over the room. Emily yelled an indignant, "He started it!"

Tiffany just gave her a look of disbelief. Emily settled back against Giles with a sigh. "Whatever Tiffany, you know how I am," she said, laughing. Tiffany rolled her eyes, thankful that at least that was _all _she had to hear about.

"Eew…" Buffy said, making a face of disgust. She averted her gaze from that of her former Watcher, who was having trouble keeping a smirk of his face.


	7. Fencing,Falafel, and a FoolProof Charade

**Chapter Seven:**

It was noon the next day when Emily stumbled into Giles' kitchen, fishing a Mountain Dew out of the fridge.

_The poor man, I've even corrupted his fridge…_she thought, savoring the liquid as it woke her. She padded into the living room, the floor a bit cold against her bare feet as she moved towards the sound of metal clinking together.

"Morning, love," Giles greeted as she seated herself on the couch. He was wearing grey trousers and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up a bit and the top few buttons undone, as he fenced with Will, who donned a Misfits shirt and jeans, his caramel hair falling into his face as he blocked Giles.

"More like afternoon," Will teased, as his opponent recovered from the block with a flourish, "Does she always sleep this late?"

"Only when I leave her be," Giles said, coyly, smirking when Will grimaced as they both tried to pull from the stalemate they were in. A few rapid swords movements later, and both weapons skittered across the floor.

"Good form, William," Giles said, picking up the fallen swords and placing them on the table. He crossed the room and kissed Emily lightly before taking a seat beside her on the couch. Will tiredly plopped into an arm chair opposite them, sighing as he relaxed. The noise was what had woken Emily up-she assumed they'd been fencing for quite a while.

"Where's Tiffany?" Emily asked, taking another drink of her Mountain Dew. Giles shrugged and looked at Will.

"She went with Gerard," he answered, "Something about their anniversary. They'll be back in time for dinner, she said. She also said you'd stay in your pajamas all day long if I didn't tell you to change, so get on it, little miss lazy boots."

Emily smiled at his odd endearment, then got up.

"Alright, I'm off to take a shower then," She said, draining the rest of her soda. She disappeared into Giles' room and shut the door.

Giles retrieved the swords from their resting place, and tossed one to Will, who caught it, quite gracefully. The shower's soft cascade was soon drowned out by the sound of chinking metal as the two men sparred, chatting like old friends.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tiffany stood at the door of the apartment that Frank and Gerard had rented for while they were staying in Sunnydale, having knocked a moment earlier.

A few minutes later, Gerard answered the door.

"Hey there, beautiful," Tiffany said, smiling at her boyfriend, "Been up long?" she asked, stepping into the apartment and giving him a quick kiss.

"About five minutes," he admitted, sheepishly, fiddling with the ends of his hair as Tiffany sat down on the overstuffed chair nearest her. She swung her legs over the arm of her chair.

Gerard sat down on the ottoman across from her.

"You're a slacker," Tiffany stated, grinning and swinging her feet in a child-like manner, "So, what are we doing today" she asked. Immense curiosity was evident in her hazel eyes.

"That's a surprise," Gerard stated, a grin on his face.

Tiffany pouted a bit, "Fine…" she paused, before smiling excitedly, "Is it a goat?"

Gerard laughed a bit, "Really not a goat," he said.

"Is it a goat in a party hat?" Tiffany inquired, hopefully.

"No…"

"Is it a mandarin orange with an 'I wish I had a goat complex'?" Tiffany inquired.

"No, suga…it has nothing to with a goat. Are you hinting you would like a goat?" he asked.

Tiffany shook her head, innocently, "Nope-" she shook her head once more, "They're just so cute with their little droopy ears, perpetual sadness, and little fuzzy noses. Sure, there insatiable appetite for both food, destruction, and pants for some reason ,is a downside, but they're quite adorable. Especially fainting ones…"

Gerard couldn't help but laugh at her eccentric statement, "Are you sure you don't want a goat?"

Tiffany nodded, "If I actually had a goat, I think I'd be like, shrug, goat, you know?"

Gerard smiled a bit, "Well, if you change your mind..."

"I'll tell you," Tiffany assured him.

"So, where are we going?" Tiffany asked, turning so she was sitting properly in her chair.

"That's for me to know" Gerard smirked, standing and taking Tiffany's hand as they headed towards the door, "We have to make a quick stop at t he mall," he concluded.

"Okay, fine….are you sure it's not a goat?"

Gerard laughed a bit, and sliding his arm her waist, the pair headed out the door.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tiffany walked hand-in-hand with Gerard through the mall. Gerard had told her that he needed some arts supplies and Tiffany had decided they would run by Barnes and Noble as well, as per usual.

Stepping inside the art supply store, Gerard practically dragged her through the aisles trying to find whatever her was looking for. Tiffany watched him select a sketch pad, and a package of charcoals, but was distracted by the unmistakable voices of Emily and Will, on the other side of the aisle.

Tiffany relinquished her grip on Gerard's hand, and walked around the corner and ran directly into Will, who gave an annoyed 'bloody hell' under his breath, before looking up and realizing it was Tiffany.

"Hey Guys," Tiffany said, smiling at her friends.

"Hey" Emily said, smiling. She had been walking arm in arm with Will, surveying the rows of art supplies, giddily. The tiny girl looked curious for a second, and frowned, "Your anniversary is today, aren't you supposed to be spending time with you know, the other aniversee?"

"He's occupied,'" Tiffany informed, shrugging, "We're going to Barnes and Noble in a bit, I saw this huge thesaurus and …" she trailed off, grinning excitedly, before looking back at her amused friends.

"Okay, anyone calling me a nerd right now would not be accused of being a crazy person," she concluded.

The pair just laughed, before Will spoke up, "Drag him into your literary world. It's only fair, I mean seeing you here was a bit suspicious, I've seen your drawing of a platypus …definitely…unique," he finished, awkwardly.

Tiffany pouted a bit, "What? I couldn't have improved the past few years?"

Will and Emily looked at her blankly, "Okay, you're right," Tiffany sighed, "Rock star boyfriend was out of art supplies-" she shrugged, "he's around the corner" she volunteered, defeated.

"What are you guys doing out and about? I mean you're like the king and queen of social anxiety," she stated, looking confused.

"I needed art supplies," Will informed, and Emily inserted a, "and comic books," causing Tiffany to nod in understanding.

"Behold how shocked I'm not," Tiffany stated.

Will just shrugged, as they walked around the corner to find Gerard still staring intently at supplies though he was already loaded down with items.

"Need some help, honey?" Tiffany inquired, grinning a bit.

Gerard nodded, "Thanks, I got a little carried away," he shrugged, or at least tried to but couldn't do so properly with the mass of supplies he was carrying.

Tiffany took a few things from him, and Will spoke up from behind the pair as they headed towards the counter.

"That's why you always get a basket, mate," Will said, gesturing to the one he held on the side Emily wasn't on.

Gerard sat the supplies onto the counter, as did Tiffany, before turning to Will, "I'll remember that in the future,"

Will gave a vestige of a smile, as he and Emily waited to purchase their items.

The quartet walked out of the store, and headed towards Barnes and Noble, unfortunately, Tiffany was distracted by the Hot Topic, and started ever-so-subtly veering towards it.

"Honey," Gerard said, smiling at her as they reached the door of the store, "Surprise, remember? We don't have time for you to buy the store as you often like to do," he said, gently.

"But I don't have that shirt," Tiffany pouted, gesturing to the Smiths' shirt in the window. She was tugging on her boyfriend's hand, like a child as she tried to get him to enter the store.

"But you already have six other ones," Gerard stated, knowingly.

"Seven," Tiffany corrected, sticking out her lower lip a bit.

Their behavior caused Emily to giggle.

Gerard nodded, "Oh, I forgot about the one you stole from me," he smirked.

Tiffany grinned, sheepishly, "You left it on the couch," she said, shrugging a bit.

"C'mon, you can get it later," Gerard tried to convince her.

"Fine, I'm sure they'll have it later," Tiffany complied, though her voice was sarcastic, "Someone will buy it, someone always buys the stuff I want..

Will looked at the now vacant window, "It looks like someone already did,' he said.

Tiffany grinned, "Okay, let's go," she said, trying to hide the bag she was now holding with the Hot Topic logo splayed across it.

Gerard shook his head at her antics, and they started to resume walking when Will stopped them.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Will asked, noting the bag in her hand

A few mindless mall patrons glanced at him, curiously. The quartet just ignored them.

"Bad seed," Emily said, shaking her head at her friend.

"Did I forget the all-powerful thing?" Tiffany asked.

Will shook his head, "I just thought you were exaggerating and being bloody pretentious," he said.

"It's not like I mess with people," Tiffany assured him, though she felt a pang of guilt fill her for a moment as she thought of Jaden and her friends, "Most of the time, I forget that I even have my powers. Or Giles yells at me for using them, disrupting the universe, something about the natural order of things," she shrugged, "I've just stopped doing stuff around him."

"So, that makes it not a big deal?" Will inquired.

Tiffany nodded, "Pretty much-" she shrugged, resuming her walk once more.

"You're all daft!" Will said, sighing as he followed after Tiffany and Gerard while Emily walked by his side.

"And that's why you love us," Tiffany reminded, and then she frowned a bit, "When are you leaving town, Will?"

"I have to leave the morning after the concert," Will informed, causing Tiffany and Emily to pout.

Emily looked a bit more depressed, since she hadn't known until Will had told her there was no way she was going to get tickets to the show.

"So, about that…" Emily said, pointedly, "You gonna sneak me in, Mr. Will, because I don't have a ticket."

Will just gave her a tiny sympathetic smile.

The group headed into Barnes and Noble, and Tiffany immediately headed towards the Starbucks it housed.

"Need vanilla frappuchino," she said, sounding a bit mindless, and letting go of Gerard's hand, "Want anything? I know you kind of run on coffee," she said, smiling at the Jersey native.

"A vanilla frappuchino sounds good," Gerard stated.

"You guys want anything?" she asked, looking at Emily and Will, who both shook their heads, she then headed towards the counter.

Gerard stood next to Emily and Will, surveying the shelves and trying not to hit anything or anyone with the mass of bags he was holding.

"I bought my ticket a month ago, for an insane sum. I doubt you can find one now," Will said, looking deeply apologetic, though it was in no way his fault, "I doubt the whole sneaking you in bit would go over well, but …we'll figure something out,"

"Find one what?" Tiffany inquired, returning to the group, sipping on her drink. She gave the other to Gerard, who gladly accepted it.

"A ticket to the Cure show," Emily pouted.

"The show they're playing with you guys," Tiffany confirmed, glancing at Gee.

The vocalist nodded and opened his mouth to speak but Emily interrupted him, "The show that _ROBERT _will e playing in the town where _I _now live and I can't attend because apparently the tickets are more rare than Giles in leather pants," she concluded.

Everyone frowned at the statement, and Tiffany look horrified.

"I have an extra," Gerard said, flippantly, taking another sip of his caffeinated beverage.

"That I can have?" Emily asked, cautiously, as she turned her attention to Gerard.

"Yeah," Gerard smiled at her, "I don't actually need it."

Tiffany sipped her drink, knowing that any second Emily would explode with excitement.

"I freakin' love you!" Emily squeaked, giving Gerard a frantic hug, which turned out to be quite difficult since he was loaded down with packages.

"I paid five hundred dollars for _my _ticket," Will mumbled, the jealousy evident in his tone.

"Which reminds me," Gerard pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, with some effort and handed the ticket to Emily, who clutched it to her chest tightly. He then produced two more pieces of paper, "I have backstage passes, too," he said, offering them to Emily and Will with a smile.

"Backstage passes!" The two Cure-fanatics squealed, looking at Gerard with wide eyes as they took the slips of paper from his hand.

The rocker merely nodded, and smiled cheesily confirming their dream come true.

Squeeing with delight, the two friends, embraced each other jumping up and down in an excited hug of pure joy.

"We're going to see Robert!" They gushed, before their lips met in a full-blown kiss.

Tiffany and Gerard both gaped, staring at the pair with confused looks before schooling their expressions as a familiar voice drifted across the lobby in their direction.

"Well, well, well, looks like tall ,dark, and gothic is an item on the slut menu," Faith said, approaching them. Emily's scowl faded to a peculiar look before she smirked, winking at the group, as her back was turned to Faith. She then turned around, facing the prying girl.

"Oh, hi Faith! Didn't see you there," Emily said, sweetly, a faux smile plastered across her face. Catching on, Will wrapped his arms around her, leaving over her shoulder to look at the other girl. Gerard and Tiffany watched with mixed expressions of shock, horror, and extreme amusement.

"Yeah, figured you didn't, seeing as how you were…" Faith paused a second, arching her eyebrows suggestively, "Busy and all."

Tiffany coughed, stifling a laugh, as Gerard suddenly felt the need to loudly clear his throat.

"Oh, that's nothing," Will purred, "You should see us in private." he paused for a moment, then added thoughtfully, "well, you might not want to see it…it does get quite interesting at times."

Faith expression contorted to one of pure revulsion. Soon, however, her trademark smirk returned. The look on her face showed that the proverbial light bulb had indeed clicked on.

"And what does Giles think about all this?" She asked, looking at the two as if she held some important bit of information over them.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I love Rupert," Emily said, now turning to face Will, she took his hands in her own, looking up at him as they both tried not to laugh, "But William has something he doesn't."

"Oh, and what might that be?" Faith implored, "Whips, chains-"

"No, Ripper has those," Emily dismissed, much to the disgust of all those present, "But Will has something else, something better, something more…"

"What is it, them?" Faith demanded, near bursting from the need to know the information the girl was withholding from her.

"Cure Cds" Emily said, giddily, hugging Will. He wrapped his arms around her and spun her around, kissing the top of her forehead as he sat her down again, lightly.

"That's m'girl" Will said, his arms still around her, "She's got her priorities straight, and bloody Aces in the sack…"

Faith tried to form words, but failed. Tiffany and Gerard reeled from silent laughter, tears streaming from Tiffany's eyes as she dared not make a sound.

"You people are insane," Faith stammered, finally managing to regain the ability to speak.

Emily shrugged happily, and looked up at Will, who grinned, mischievously.

"Now, Faith," he said, scornfully, "Jealousy is a horrible thing Just because little miss vixen here has managed to snag two of the three main male characters in the story, doesn't mean you can throw a temper tantrum and call her band names."

"That's it!" Faith snapped, pointing at Will and Emily, "I'm gonna go have a nice little talk with Giles, and tell him exactly what his girl is doing while he's not looking."

She glared at the pair, who looked at her with candy-coated sweet expressions.

"What do you have to say about that?" The slayer demanded angrily.

"Hmm, I think this sums it up pretty well," Will said, smoothly dipping Emily in what looked like, from the antagonist's view, a very romantic kiss. His hair fell into a curtain around their faces, and they resisted the urge to giggle as their noses touched, due to their close proximity.

Faith enraged voice signified they'd been convincing enough as Will pulled Emily back up from their 'kiss.'

"You make me sick, both of you!" she spat, disgusted. "I can't believe Giles fell for your little amateur act,"

The irony of the statement was in no way lost on the group as they struggled to keep their cool while Faith stalked off. After a few feet, she stopped and looked over her shoulder.

"I'm telling him everything!" she shouted, menacingly, "And then you and your little band of misfits will be gone from Sunnydale for good,"

"I wish we had the Misfits here," Will said, wistfully, as they waited for Faith to get out of earshot. Once she'd disappeared from their view, they let forth the hysterical laughter they'd all been holding in.

"Guys, what's Giles going to say?" Tiffany asked, worriedly, "I mean, I know he trusts you and all, Emily, but… this could be bad. It looked REAL."

"He's going to laugh his little British librarian ass off, "Gerard quickly interjected, smiling broadly, "I got the whole thing on video."

The group laughed again, then looked at him skeptically yet relived. The rock star grinned, holding up a small camera.

"I wanted to get Emily and Will's reaction on film, when I told them about the backstage passes. I figured I might even show Robert," Emily and Will blanched at this statement, but Tiffany urged her boyfriend to continued.

"Then, Faith walked up, I saw Emily's maniacal smirk and decided to keep recording. I knew I bought a video camera for a reason," he finished, still grinning.

"I'd still better call him before Faith gets there," Emily said, picking up her phone and dialing Giles' number. Tiffany and Gerard moved closer to the other two, so they could heaqr the conversation. Emily put her cell on speakerphone and then held it in the middle of the huddled group, as it started ringing.

"'ello," Giles," a very British voice answered.

"Hey, Rupert, it's me," Emily answered, "I just wanted to call and tell you that a very angry and confused Faith might stop by to tell you how much of a crazy slut that I am. Just shut the door in her face, okay, love?"

"Why ever would she do that?" Giles asked, his voice concerned.

"it's a long story," Emily said, laughing a bit, "We'll tell you all about it when we get there. Will and I just have a couple more places to go, we should be there pretty soon."

"Alright," Giles said, cheerily," You lot have fun."

"We will. Bye," Emily said, hanging up.

The group started laughing, but Emily and Will soon stopped as realization dawned on them. They looked at each other, shuddering.

"After we explain this to Giles," Will said, awkwardly, "Let's never speak of it again,"

"Agreed," Emily said, taking the arm he offered her as they headed off to the nearby music store. Tiffany and Gerard continued laughing, forgetting entirely about the thesaurus Tiffany had wanted, as they headed off to celebrate their anniversary.


	8. Midget Fury and the Angry Librarian

**A/N: There was originally more to this chapter but it was uber long so I broke it into two chapters. Chapter nine will basically be like part II of Chapter Eight. Enjoy! Don't forget to Review. 3**

**Chapter Eight:**

Emily sat a stack of plates on the table, making sure they were perfectly even. She knew it would bother Tiffany if they weren't and didn't want her friend to have to worry about anything other than Gerard. She set the silverware container beside the plates, along with a liberal amount of napkins, and the salt and pepper shakers. She'd done everything she could think of to prepare for their guests. She walked into the kitchen, where Giles was cooking dinner.

He smiled at her as she walked in, stirring something on the stove as he looked at her. She raised an eyebrow in question, but he shook his head. He wasn't going to tell her what he was cooking.

"When's William supposed to be in, again?" he asked, covering the pot and cracking the oven just enough to see its contents, "Blokes been gone all day," he shut the oven, satisfied with the progress of the dish.

"He'll be back in time for dinner. He said the class he was teaching would be over and then he had another meeting. The poor guy had meetings all day. He said he wouldn't miss your cooking, though, if they try to hold him over, he'll find a way out of it," she looked at Giles, smiling slightly at his apron-clad appearance before a sad look crossed her features.

Giles turned down the heat on the stove, tossing off his apron as he walked over to Emily.

"What's wrong, dear?" he asked, cupping her face in his hand. She looked up at him sadly, as he wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb. He wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her close to him, and kissed the top of her head.

Emily snuggled up against his soft, black sweater as he rubbed her back, trying to calm her.

"What's the matter, love?" he pressed as he continued to hold her. She mumbled something into his chest, and he tipped her head up to look into her eyes. She gave him a small vestige of a smile.

"It's just.." she trailed off, "Well, Will's only here for a week, Gerard nod Tiffany can't stay much longer than that, either," The small girl paused, struggling, "Then it's just you and me and…"she stopped again looking sadly at her fiancé, "None of your friends like me."

"Oh, that's not true," he consoled, pushing a stray bit of hair from her face, "Xander likes you plenty," he added, playfully.

Emily smiled giving a small laugh as she remembered that especially awkward situation.

"Not that it matters," Giles said, leaning in and kissing her before he continued, "I'll bloody kill the berk if it happens again," he finished, kissing her again.

Will took that opportunity to walk into the kitchen, having returned to Giles' apartment. He walked right past Emily and Giles on his mission to the fridge, rummaging through it, he found a diet coke that Tiffany had left. He closed the refrigerator door, and set his briefcase on the counter, turning around.

"Hey, you lot, I'm bac-"he stopped his sentence abruptly, staring at the pair blankly as they continued to kiss. The two pulled apart slightly at Will's interruption, Giles carefully removing his hand from Emily's hair as he turned to talk to Will.

"You have bloody impeccable timing," Giles said, moving to check the food on the stove. He turned the burner back up and lifted the lid of the pot to stir its contents.

Will sighed as his stomach growled.

"Mmhmm, I bet you haven't eaten anything today have you?" Emily chastised, looking motherly as she glanced at Will. The taller man shook his head, a bit sheepishly.

"I had so many bleeding meetings that I didn't have time to eat," he said, patting his stomach.

"All right, you two, out of the kitchen while I finish this up," Giles said, his hand on the oven door.

Emily kissed him on the cheek as she walked past him with Will on their way to the living room.

Ten minutes later, Giles ambled into the living room to find the pair sleeping soundly by the record player, with a Cure Disintegration vinyl playing softly. Will was lying on his back, a pillow commandeered from the couch under his head. Emily was lying on her side, perpendicular to Will, with her head on his stomach, facing him.

Giles smiled at the two, stooping down he picked up Emily and sat her gently on the couch. He retrieved two blankets from the closet, spreading one over Will in the floor, before he sat on the couch by Emily's sleeping form. He pulled her halfway into his lap, putting the other blanket over her. Playing with his fiancé's hair as he watched her sleep, he soon dozed off himself.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tiffany and Gerard walked towards the entrance of Giles' apartment, and the brunette girl knocked on the door, enthusiastically.

The pair waited for a few minutes, but there was no answer. Tiffany looked at Gerard, curiously.

"Giles never takes this long to answer the door. Also, I saw his Citroen out front, and _he _invited _us_ over for dinner," Tiffany reminded, "Why is he taking so long?" she inquired, frowning a bit in thought.

Gerard shrugged at her, before a smirk slid onto his lips, "Maybe they're too far away from the door to hear you-"

"Shut up, Mister Smarty Pants," Tiffany said, frustrated by his logic.

She knocked again and once again there was no response.

"Maybe they're occupied," Gerard volunteered.

Tiffany glanced at Gerard over her shoulder, "You're a bad, bad man," she informed, seeing his suggestive smirk.

She reached down and turned the door knob, and wasn't surprised to see it open. She grabbed Gerard's arm, pulling him towards the door, "If I'm going to be scarred emotionally for all of eternity, I think you should share my fate."

Gerard couldn't help but laugh as she pulled him inside the doorway. She gave a tiny sigh of relief as she spotted Giles asleep on the couch, and then followed it with a loud 'aww' as she noticed Emily as well. The engaged couple was curled up on the couch, sleeping soundly.

"Okay, I've gotta say it, that's completely adorable," Gerard admitted.

Tiffany grinned, as she sat her messenger bag onto Giles' desk, and pulled out a sketch pad. Tapping her fingers on the cover, she surveyed the pair trying to decide which one would be less hazardous to awaken.

"What are you doing?" Giles inquired, running his hand over the bar beside him.

"I have to show Giles my goat," She explained, flipping the pad open to its proper page.

Gerard couldn't help but smile a bit at her excitement, "It's nothing special, suga."

Tiffany smiled, clutching the pad to her chest, "It's Falafel, my very own goat, of course it's special," she defended, giving Gee a quick kiss before heading around to the other side of the couch-and almost tripping over Will. S he gave a squeak of surprise, and looked at Gerard with wide eyes.

Gerard walked around the couch to see what all the fuss was about, and spotted the slumbering Will, "Okay, it _was _cute," he gestured to Emily and Giles, "Before I saw the guy in the floor,"

Tiffany smiled, still holding the pad to her chest. Looking at Gerard, she bit her lower lip in thought, "I don't know who to wake up, and show first. "Wake me up and I'll rip your throat out" Emily; 'I'm stuffy and British" Ripper; or "I like figure skating" Will."

Gerard looked pensive for a split second, " I think figure skating guy sound much less hazardous than Mr. I'm British and collect swords, or tiny, ferocious Emily."

"Thanks for the input, honey," Tiffany said, rolling her eyes at his way of boiling down her friends personalities into one lame name.

Gerard smiled, sheepishly, and turning away from his girlfriend began to survey the slumbering mans book shelves.

Tiffany crouched down beside Will, who was sleeping deeply. She gently nudged his shoulder with the hand not holding the sketch pad.

A soft gurgle was heard, and the male simply turned away from her and continued to nap.

Sighing, Tiffany decided not to wake Will, and opted instead to rouse Emily, who would appreciate most what she had to share.

Looking around for something to toss at her friend, she spotted a rather large throw pillow and tossed it directly at Emily. It bounced off of her nose, and fell into the floor.

A noise somewhere between a growl and a groan was heard--the beast was awake.

Tiffany turned to Gerard, who was reaching to pull a book off the shelf, "Gerard, can you go get a Mt. Dew from the fridge?" she asked, hopefully.

Gerard turned, and looked at her, curiously, "Why?"

"In my years as …narrator…I have learned that you do not-under any circumstances-awaken the midget without a peace offering of some sort," Tiffany explained, in a rush, as Emily continued to rustle a bit on the couch. She was not yet to the point of complete awareness, but her movement was causing Giles to be pulled out of his own state of unconsciousness.

"Maybe you should hurry," Tiffany stated, biting her bottom lip, nervously. She was almost afraid to move as it the motion might cause Emily to lash out.

Gerard looked at Emily, Giles, and the completely dead to the world male on the floor. Shrugging, he headed into the kitchen to fulfill his girlfriend's request.

Tiffany turned to Giles and Emily. The former was almost awake and a scowl had slid onto his face. Emily, on the other hand, had finally woken completely and was looking at Tiffany with a mixture of annoyance and curiosity on her face.

The brunette took the opportunity to call out to Gerard, "And, honey, can you put on some tea as well?"

Gerard gave an affirmative and Tiffany smiled broadly at Emily, "Good morning, sunshine-well, okay, evening." she corrected.

The tiny girl sat up on the couch, reluctantly, "What do you want?" she asked, her grumpiness apparent.

"We're here for the dinner Giles invited us to," Tiffany reminded, just as Gerard walked in carrying Emily's caffeinated beverage of choice. The girl snatched the bottle from her boyfriend's hand with a thankful smile and offered it to Emily, "Mt. Dew?" she inquired, with a wide grin.

Emily nodded and tiffany opened the bottle for her newly awakened friend, as was custom. She handed the bottle off to the shorter girl, and sat down beside her. Once again, Gerard was scouring the shelves and Giles yawned as he ran a hand through his hair.

"I got a goat!" Tiffany squeaked, happily, holding out her sketch pad to Emily, who had already downed ½ of the bottle.

The girl accepted the pad from the ecstatic brunette at her side, and surveyed the sketch. It was a tiny, black goat who was wearing a party hat with polka dots. And even without Gerard's signature under it, she would have known who'd drawn it. Emily looked at Tiffany, curiously, as she sipped on her soda once more, waiting for Tiffany to elaborate.

"He has a little party hat!" Tiffany grinned, "And his name is Falafel!"

Giles looked at Tiffany, oddly, and she snatched the pad away from Emily and thrust it into Giles' lap, "Giles, meet Falafel, he eats clowns." she explained.

Giles surveyed the sketch, and gave a nod, "Lovely, Tiffany, absolutely lovely."

The sound of the kettle was heard from the kitchen and Giles excused himself to fix the tea. Tiffany sat back on the couch, and pouted a bit, "It's like the anti-goat household, she muttered.

Gerard had pulled a book from the shelf, and Tiffany was too busy pouting to notice, and Emily was much too tired.

The hazel-eyed musician sat down in a chair by the book case and began to flip through the dusty tome.

Tiffany reached out with her foot, and nudged Will. When he didn't budge, she looked at Emily, "I really wasn't sure until now he actually slept,"

Emily couldn't help but laugh s she finished off her bottle of lemony-lime goodness.

Giles returned a few moments later, carrying a tray full of scones and tea. He spotted Will-still in the floor-, Tiffany and Emily chatting on the couch, and then his eyes narrowed into slits as he saw Tiffany's beau flipping through one of his books-a 16th century codex to be specific.

"Bloody hell," he mumbled, setting the tray onto the coffee table.

The two females smiled, before noticing his demeanor and direction of his gaze.

"Oh, crap," Tiffany mumbled, while Emily just cringed, knowing what exactly what was to come.

"I thought I told you to stay the bloody hell away from my books, "Giles said, with an even tone, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I…uhh..umm," Gerard stammered. Rising from his seat, he quickly put the book back on the shelf and fidgeted nervously with his hand. He looked fleetingly at Tiffany for help, but the look he received in return let him know that she wouldn't help him even if she could. He looked up at the angry ex-watcher, who was glaring at him.

"Well?" Giles said, waiting for an answer.

"I-I…I just …uh….erm…" The rocker stammered, looking sheepishly at the floor.

"I asked you nicely," the older man continued, uncrossing his arms and moving slightly towards Gerard, pausing for effect, "I even threatened you when you insisted on being a bleeding prat about it." he unbuttoned the sleeves of his shirt, rolling them up, "I guess I'll just have to rough you up a bit," he finished, calmly.

Gerard paled (yes, it was actually physically possible for him to become paler), and backed up a bit, a look of panic on his face. Emily rose from her seat, standing in front of Giles and putting her hands on his forearms.

"Rupert, I think you need to calm down,"

"Yeah," Gerard piped in, "I'm sorry, I forgot. It won't happen again,"

"Please do not hospitalize our guest, Rupert," Emily pleaded, "He gave me Cure tickets, remember?" she finished, smiling.

"He left _fingerprints _on my 16th Century codex, "Giles added, snidely, still bristling.

Gerard's calm demeanor vanished s a darker look spread over his features at Giles' words.

"I said I was sorry," he snapped, approaching Giles, "Why are you making such a big deal about of this? It's JUST A BOOK!"

Tiffany, Will, and Emily looked at Gerard with expressions of shock, worry, and pity. Their mouths open as they gaped at his stupidity. Giles jaw clenched as a look of pure fury settled onto his features.

"Just a bloody book? JUST A BLOODY BOOK!" he yelled, his anger continued to grow.

Emily was still standing between the two enraged men, wondering how the fight had escalated so quickly, and what she could do to stop it. Will and tiffany looked apprehensively at the scene unfolding before them, worried for the safety of their tiny friend.

"Yeah, it's just a book," Gerard said, drawing even closer to Giles. "I mean is your life really so bland that books are that important to you?"

"That is the only copy in existence!" the furious man replied through clenched teeth, glaring the younger antagonist down.

"I think this is pretty ridiculous," Gerard challenged. Will got up moving next to Giles and Emily.

"Can we just calm down, mates?" he asked, "It's getting a bit dramatic and dinner's getting cold, I'm sure."

"It's not my fault Mr. Old Guy here lives for his books. I guess he's just missing something," Gerard said, rudely, "What's wrong, Giles, Emily just not doin' it for you?"

"Hell hath no fury like an angry midget," Tiffany deadpanned as Emily had to be forcibly restrained by her fiancé. She'd made to attack Gerard, but Giles had grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her back. S he was putting up a decent fight, and he had to struggle with her a bit to keep her from getting to Gerard.

"I mean, just because you can't get off anymore and have to _read _about it, doesn't mean Emily should suffer the consequences," Gerard continued.

"Oh, bloody hell," Will said, as Emily was thrust into his arms by a raging Giles. He held her back, but she had stopped her furious struggling as Giles was now purposefully striding towards Gerard.

Before the mouthy rock star had time to react, Giles had closed the distance between them. He grabbed Gerard by the front of his shirt, effectively pulling the shorter man towards him. Giles' fist collided with Gerard's face as he let go of his shirt, sending the musician flying.

Gerard landed with a dull thud several feet from where Giles stood, his head turned slightly to the side as he lay in a heap on the floor. Tiffany rushed to his side, pushing his hair away from his face to see a bruise forming on below his left eye.

"I'll get some ice," Emily said, breaking the tense silence. Will released his grip on the girl, still lightly gaping at Giles and Gerard. Emily returned a few moments later with a small ice pack, handing it to Gerard. He hesitantly accepted it, looking at her oddly, before he pressed the cold pack to his already swelling face.

"What?" Emily asked, noticing the assorted gazes of the people in the room, "Yes, he's been a prat, said bad things about me, blahblahblah…but…Robert Smith! I get to meet Robert Smith because of this beautiful man!" she said, gesturing to the battered, bruised, and mussed figure lying on the floor. She added a 'Jerk' to the end, for good measure.

Will and Giles approached the group towering over the injured Gerard.

"Don't even think of slagging either of us, ever again," Giles threatened, "Unless you want to be far sorrier than you are now."

Gerard nodded, shifting to sit up. He moved the ice pack and gently prodded his face, flinching when he reached a tender spot. There was quite a nasty bruise forming already on his swollen face, despite the ice. He rose from the floor, Tiffany joining him as he stood up.

"I'm not a violent person," Will informed, "but net time I wont be arsed to hold her back ,I'll just let her rip your bloody face off."

Tiffany gave a small distressed noise, "I like his face," she said, sadly.

Gerard smirked a bit, but winced at the pain it caused.

"Well, I think you'd better leave, "Giles said, turning to Gerard and ignoring Tiffany's comment, "You can stay if you would like Tiffany," he added, "But I don't think it wise for Gerard to be in my presence."

"We'll just be going then," Tiffany said, grabbing her messenger bag from the desk, and slipping the sketch pad back into it, "I can't let him go by himself, he's in no condition. Sorry, guys, rain check," she informed.

"It's cool," Emily said, hugging friend. She walked them to the door, closing it as the pair left the house.

"Well, that was interesting, "Will said, as Emily joined the in the dining room to finally eat their meal.


	9. The Many Shortcomings of Mister Way

**Chapter Nine:**

Emily, Will, and Giles sat lazily on the couch in his apartment absorbing tunes from Cream as their stomachs digested the meal they'd just eaten. Full and content, the three were idly chatting with spaces of comfortable silence between dialogue.

"So, are you ready for the Cure concert?" Will asked, beaming at Emily.

She grinned back at her fellow Cure addict. "Of course. Three more days until I get to see Robert Smith! THE Robert Smith! Robert "I'm the prettiest man in the world" Smith! He's-"

"Okay, love," Giles interrupted, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. He was, however, fighting a loosing battle.

"-bloody amazing," Will chimed finishing Emily's abandoned sentence.

Giles rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to form what would have been a witty remark had thee not been a knock at the door. He glared as he got up to greet the unexpected visitor. He crossed the room and opened the door, but did not move aside to let the guest enter.

"Faith," he said, the annoyed tone glaring through the doorway. Emily and Will turned to watch the fight that was sure to ensue.

"Your fiancé around? Or is she still off with that other guy-you know , the one who's half your age?" Faith smirked, then continued, "Poor Giles, finally gets himself a girl and she finds somebody else. Must suck to be you. She's cheating on you, old man. With that guy friend of hers. I saw them at the mall-it was disgusting."

"You were mistaken, Faith," Giles countered, smiling. He paused, waiting for her to take the bait.

"Mistaken! I SAW them in the mall, with Tiffany and her pretty boy. They were all over each other, Giles," And what are you smiling about? Your fiancé is nothing but a SLUT!"

Giles scowled, "I'll have you know that she's not a slut, and I won't have you coming to my house at odd hours of the night making accusations. I'm smiling because you're a bloody moron. I know exactly what happened at the mall; both William and Emily told me. And Gerard, Tiffany's boyfriend, had the entire thing on tape,"

"So, you don't care that she's cheating on you? Are you that whipped?" Faith looked a bit shocked, and somewhat disgusted at the prospect.

"I'm not as you put it 'whipped', "Giles said, tiredly, "You've been had, Faith. It was an act. That grandeur show of affection was but a farce."

"But I SAW them Giles!"

"You saw them act, yes." Giles was growing more and more irritated by the second. "Just because you sleep with every half-decent looking chav you meet doesn't mean Emily does."

Faith stared at him, her mouth open with anger and shock.

"Did you just call me a-"

"-slut, yes. See also: whore, tart, slag, strumpet, libertine, harlot, trollop, hussy, street walker…should I go on?"

Faith started to respond, angrily, but Giles cut her off once again.

"You can bloody well sod off and don't come back!" he said, annoyed. He calmed down a bit and then continued, "I'm going to go sit and enjoy the rest of my evening with Emily and William."

"Oh, so you're into threesomes now, does it take the both of you to make her happy? Or do you just swing both ways?" Faith countered, maliciously.

"Oh DO shut up!" Giles said, irritably, smirking as he shut the door in Faith's shocked face.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tiffany walked alongside Gerard, as they ascended the stairs to his apartment building. The trip from Giles to Gerard's had been mostly silent, except for Tiffany's occasional question of how his face felt, and frequent exclamations of surprise that _Giles _had hit Gerard.

As they opened the door to Gerard's apartment, they were met with the sight of all his band mates huddled around the television, watching some old slasher flick.

"Hey," Ray said, hardly turning from the T.V.

"Hi," Tiffany said, but Gerard didn't speak.

"I didn't think you guys would be back here this early," Frank stated, looking at Gerard, as a trashy blonde was impaled on the screen. His green eyes widened as he took his friend's appearance, "What the hell happened to your face!"

Gerard smiled sheepishly, but winced at the pain it caused him to do so.

"I got hit," he stated, bluntly, obviously to wanting to explain.

"Well, obviously," Ray inserted, now noticing his friend's face as well, "But by who? Arnold Swartzeneger?"

Gerard averted his gaze, and Frank looked at Tiffany, a look of accusation on his face.

"You hit him again, didn't you?"

Tiffany shook her head, hurriedly, "NO! I only hit him once, and it was an accident. I told him tickling me was risky, but he didn't listen-" she grumbled in her defense. She opened her mouth to say something else but Mikey spoke up.

"Okay, so who did hit him?"

Tiffany looked at Gerard, who was still staring at the floor. It was obviously he wasn't going to answer the group, so she spoke up, quite softly, "Giles…"

Ray, Mikey, and Frank immediately erupted into hysterical laughter.

Tiffany bit her lip, obviously trying to hold back her own giggles. She couldn't help it, everyone knows how contagious laughter can be…especially when you shouldn't be laughing.

"Giles, like _the _Giles?" Frank asked.

Gerard nodded, but offered no further explanation.

"What could you possibly say to Giles to make him hit you?" Ray prodded, "I thought he was a pacifist, all he ever does is drink tea and read."

"I insulted his fiancé," Gerard admitted, though his confession was barely audible.

"You insulted Emily?" Frank asked, his eyes wide.

Gerard nodded slowly.

Bob frowned, looking pensive as he finally spoke, "Okay, Giles is Emily's fiancé. I met him once, British dude…" Mikey nodded and Bob continued, now looking at Tiffany, "Isn't Emily like one of your best friends?"

Tiffany looked perplexed fro a moment, and then frowned deeply as what Gerard had said dawned on her, "You called her a slut!" she stated, lightly shoving him.

Walking across the room, the brunette sat down by Frank, and took a sip of his Coke.

"JERK!" she grumbled, glaring at her bruised and mussed boyfriend.

"It just came out," Gerard said, looking at his girlfriend apologetically. He rubbed his shoulder, even though it didn't really hurt.

The male's band mates now erupted into laugher once more, Bob included this time.

Mikey stopped laughing, and a series look came over his face, "He really threw the book at you, didn't he?" the younger Way continued to look serious, though his eyes twinkled with mischief.

The group erupted into laughter once more, sans Bob, and Tiffany almost spit soda in her hysterics.

Gerard glared at his brother, but didn't reply. He looked a bit crestfallen that his girlfriend was enjoying his torment so.

"Why is that so funny?" Bob asked, obviously missing the vital information that made the statement so humorous.

"Giles used to be a librarian-" Ray stated.

Tiffany grinned, "It's a funny pun," she concluded , still giggling.

Bob nodded in understanding, but didn't join in their laughter.

Mikey looked at Bob, "Way to be on top of things, Bob," he grinned.

"Shut up, Waldo," Bob grumbled.

Mikey looked down at his red and white striped shirt in disdain.

"I love Waldo," Tiffany stated, innocently.

Gerard looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

Tiffany grinned, shrugging a bit. She took another sip of Frank's soda, and turned her attention back to Mikey who was glaring at Bob.

"Do you have a cult following?" The bassist inquired.

Bob smirked, "As a matter of fact…"

The male was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Pizza!" Ray yelled, jumping over the couch and rushing towards the door.

Tiffany shook her head at his behavior, and turned to Gerard, who was still standing in the middle of the room, awkwardly. His hand were tucked into the pockets of his leather jacket, and a brooding expression as set firmly onto his handsome-and bruised-face.

Tiffany gave Frank's soda back to him, and stood. Walking over to Gerard, she gave him an encouraging smile.

"Come on, honey, Giles will be fine in a few days if not by tomorrow. He hit you and now it's out of his system."

Gerard looked at her, a look of disbelief placed on his features, "Are you sure?"

Tiffany nodded ,"Absolutely, now lets go in your room and we'll watch 'Dawn of the Dead'," she offered, smiling. She knew that always cheered him up.

Gerard smiled a bit, giving her a quick kiss, "Okay, but first we have to sneak into the kitchen and steal a couple of Diet Cokes from Frankie."

Tiffany laughed a bit, shaking her head as she followed her boyfriend into the kitchen area.


	10. Pottymouths and Preparations

**Chapter Ten:**

Tiffany opened the door to her bedroom, bouncing happily down the stairs. She was supposed to be at Giles apartment in 30 minutes, and she still had to stop by and pick up Gerard. She had spent the night at his apartment last night, and while he'd been out with Frank doing something for their album, she had rushed home to change clothes and shower. As the excited girl rounded the last corner, and the living room came into her view, her smile immediately vanished.

Faith and Caitlin were both staring at her. Apparently her excited pace down the stairs had drawn their attention. They were both staring at her with different degrees of disdain and annoyance. They were obviously there to visit with Buffy and Angel, who weren't currently in the room. She figured there was some big evil going down that she didn't know about, but didn't think she would be needed for it anyway. She normally wasn't anymore.

"Hey, Tiffany said, weakly, stepping off the last stair. She felt it was her obligation to be polite to Caitlin, and also Faith-who would kick her ass if she said anything about the day before at the mall.

Caitlin turned away from her without a word, but Faith continued to stare at her.

"Hey," Faith replied, disdainfully, "Where's Super slut and tall, dark, and gothic?"

"_Emily _and _Will_," She punctuated each word as she looked at the Slayer with a glare, "are at Giles'. I'm about to head there myself, but I have to stop by Gee's apartment first."

The brunette vanished into the kitchen, and returned a bit later holding a bottle of Diet Coke. Faith and Caitlin were conversing in low tones, obviously not wanting her to hear what they were discussing. Tiffany felt as if she'd been eviscerated as her eyes fell on them. She had never felt awkward around Caitlin before, but now all she wanted was to get away from the her. Away from those ominous whispers that the two were now taking part in. Caitlin was supposed to be her best friend, and there she was obviously complaining to Faith about her, and probably Emily as well. Sighing, deeply, she didn't even bother to say anything, as she quickly grabbed her messenger bag off the table by the door, and exited the mansion. Slamming the door loudly, she felt tears pricking the backs of her eyelids as she headed towards her car. She practically held her breath, refusing to let the tears fall, but as soon as she shut the door on her car, they spilled forth, completely unwanted. But she was unable to stop them.

Back inside, the ominous whispered had resume.

"See I told you we shouldn't meet them here" Caitlin hissed.

"Relax" said Faith "She's gone"

"Was that mobspeak? Gone as in you're gonna beat her to death with her own corpse?"

Faith raised an eyebrow.

"Yes that was me being hopeful" she said dejectedly.

They heard the door close and Caitlin breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why you hating on her? I mean I know why I do. But I'm still not clear on your reasons. Weren't you two the best of buddies?"

"We were. And now were not."

The slayer rolled her eyes, said "Whatever" and collapsed on the couch.

Caitlin hesitated but after another look Faith gave her, she conceded.

"Fine. We were friends for a long time. But in that time I started to discover things about her that…" she shook her head and walked into the kitchen.

"How the hell was that the end of a sentence? I know I dropped outta high school and all but come on!" Faith yelled.

"Chill nutcase!" she called back "I'm just getting some water!"

"Well it was rude" the other girl muttered.

Caitlin walked back in with a glass of water in her hand.

"What happened to Miss-I'm-Addicted-To-Snapple?"

"She went on a diet"

"You! Dieting? What are you doing that for?"

"I gained 5 pounds. I want to lose it. Quickly."

"But you're all powerful…"

That stopped her in her tracks. She stood there with the water in her hand, dumfounded.

"Gah!" she yelled and went over to the window, threw it open and tossed the water, glass et all, into the street where it smashed against the pavement.

Faith couldn't stop laughing.

"I swear I must be the stupidest person in the world."

"No arguments there!" she gasped through fits of chortling.

"Shut up!" Caitlin snapped "I can't believe I've been drinking nothing but water for 2 days!"

That only made Faith laugh harder. Caitlin blinked and a bottle of cold peach iced tea Snapple appeared in her hand. She ripped off the top and started guzzling it down.

"Ahhh" she sighed happily when she lowered the bottle to breathe.

"Better?"

"Much…I swear this thing with the bitch being back has got me in a knot the size of Texas"

"That's a big knot"

"Why did she come back? There's nothing here for her. Doesn't she know when she's not wanted? No of course not! She just barges in and expects everyone to fall at her feet because she's just soooo awesome and completely non-conformist, hates society with their lame music and clothes" she imitated Tiffany "Look at me! I loooove MCR and all the other obscure bands who make the shittiest music in the world because everyone else hates them. So I'm cool for liking them. I'm soooo cool and sooooo original!" she stopped to take deep, gulping breaths for she had just said all that without taking one. "I just hate being around her. It makes me wanna puke. She makes my skin crawl"

"Finish telling me why"

Caitlin had settled in the armchair now; her bottle of Snapple was half empty.

"Because she's evil, moronic, and I hate her guts?"

"I happen to agree but that's not a real specific-like answer"

"And why do I have to answer to you?" she muttered under her breath.

"Only because I have to hang out with you now that we're friends" Faith shot back.

"Oh? So you admit it?" Caitlin chuckled.

"I'm at your place nearly everyday, we eat together, we watch TV together, we go to movies together, we kill evil undead together…we're practically married (if you weren't practically married to Maxie) so I guess we're what some people would call friends"

She laughed "If you say so"

They were silent for a moment and then Faith got up and moved for the phone.

"Where the hell is 'B'? They said they were gonna be here at 3!" she picked up the receiver and was about to dial when Caitlin murmured "She wasn't the person I thought she was"

Faith put the phone back down and crossed her arms over her chest. "How so?"

"She was dishonest, and callous; she disregarded people as though they were hardly human at all. I couldn't stand it. How could someone "good" treat people like she did? I ignored it. I tried. I really did. But she just…"

"Kept messing up" the brunette finished for her.

"Pretty much"

"Not that I'm saying this in her defense or anything. Cause I really do hate the bitch. So consider this as a more general statement. Sometimes people need not just second chances, but 4ths, and 5ths, until they get it right."

"I know" Caitlin said, understanding that Faith was speaking from her own experiences. "But I gave her that many chances. And more. She never fixed it enough for me to forgive and forget. I don't think she really even wanted to."

"Are you ever going to tell me anything more specific? Or am I just going to be left in the dark here?"

"You're the slayer. You love the dark"

"You're ass is gonna be beaten in a second…"

"I don't…I can't…" she stuttered trying to find the right words.

"I get it" Faith said. "It's cool. You ain't gotta talk to me about if you're not ready yet."

"That's…surprisingly thoughtful…" she said suspiciously.

"Hey! I can be thoughtful!"

Caitlin gave her a look. Faith caved.

"It's those damn anger management things I have to go to. They're making me learn how to deal with "emotions" and all that shit"

"The horror" she mocked sarcastically.

"It was court-ordered! I swear by my knife that the judge was a Klausern demon! They love torture!"

"Give it up. She went easy on you and you know it. She could have put you in jail for 15 years for beating up that old lady. You put her in the hospital for 8 months. It's called Aggravated Assault"

"She was in MY face!" Faith cried in defense.

"She was 87!"

"Like that's any excuse!"

"She just asked you for the time!"

"She wanted to steal my watch! I saw her looking at it with her little beady eyes!"

"You mean the one you got from the $1 store?" Caitlin rolled her eyes.

"It's a good watch!"

Caitlin simply rolled her eyes, indulging in her Snapple.

…………………….………………………….…………….…………….…………….……………

Tiffany arrived outside of Gerard's apartment, and checked her makeup in the mirror. Her eyeliner was bit smudged, but she didn't think it looked bad enough to reveal that she had been crying. Forcing herself to put on a smile, she stepped out of her car and headed towards the entrance of his apartment. Standing outside the door, she looked around curiously after knocking as she waited for him to answer.

A moment later, the door swung open and she was met with the sight of one Frank Iero, standing shirtless before her. He rubbed his eyes, as he stepped back and gestured for her to come inside with his free hand. Normally she would have teased him about sleeping so much, or told him how adorable he was, but all she did was muster a tiny smile.

"Hey," she said, softly.

"Hi, Gee's in his room," Frank informed, "I'm going to go do that napping thing, like I usually do," he said, turning and heading into his own bedroom without another word.

Tiffany shut the door behind her, and headed down the hallway to her boyfriend's room. The door was cracked, so she pushed it open, quietly. Gerard sat with his back to her on the bed, and was strumming lazily on an acoustic guitar. A notebook was sitting next to him, and words were scribbled haphazardly on the page. Obviously a song was in the making. She quietly watched him, not wanting to interrupt, as he sang softly while playing the instrument. A moment later, he sat the guitar back in its stand, apparently finished for the time being.

The brunette stepped away from the door, and moved around the bed so she was facing him. She gave him a soft smile, but it didn't quite meet her eyes. The events from earlier were still weighing on her as she thought of Caitlin. Things had been gotten so completely skewed. Everything had been messed up between them since she'd been with Gerard. More accurately since Jaden was gone. It was all her fault, she was sure of it, though she wasn't quite sure how. Caitlin didn't even remember Jaden, or maybe, subconsciously she did. Caitlin her told her once that your subconscious was always working, that's why you could more easily relate to certain lines in songs, books, etc. Maybe that was the case now. Caitlin's subconscious remembered Jaden, and it was what had helped drive the pair apart. Not that either one of them had tried to remedy the situation. Not really, anyway. The entire time that Tiffany had been on tour with Gerard, Caitlin hadn't called her once. The other day had been the first time that they had spoken in almost a year. The brooding girl pulled herself out of her thoughts when she realized that Gerard had been speaking to her, and she hadn't even noticed.

"Sorry, what?" Tiffany asked, her eyes meeting his.

Gerard frowned deeply, "Well, I was asking if you were ready to go to Giles', but now I'm asking if you're okay."

"I'm fine," Tiffany said. Much to her annoyance, her voice held very little of the conviction that she wished it did. She looked down at her shoes, chewing on her lip.

"You're not fine," Gerard stated, knowingly, standing and tilted her chin up with his hand so she was looking at him.

"I really am," Tiffany tried to assure him. Once again she gave a tiny smile, and once again it was countered by the worry and depression that shown in her eyes.

"No, you're not, but you're not going to tell me anything otherwise. At least not right now," Gerard said, giving a tiny sigh. He knew how she worked, everything was held in, kept away until it all piled up and then she would break down and tell him about it. Slipping his arms around her, he hugged her tightly, as she laid her head on his chest.

Breathing in his scent, the girl tried to calm herself. She knew that if she showed up like this that Emily would know immediately that something was wrong. She also knew that Emily would be able to get her to admit what was wrong much quicker than Gerard. Her boyfriend knew exactly how she worked, and accepted that, but Emily was always the one who could pry anything out of her without really trying. Not that Emily was nosy, she just knew the right questions to ask, mostly because she had been doing it for so long. And also because she was the type of person that couldn't stand of her friends to be hurting, no matter how minute the reason behind it might be.

"We should go to Giles'" Tiffany stated, looking up at Gerard, his hazel eyes were laced with worry.

"Are you sure you wanna go?" Gerard inquired.

"Are you kidding, miss a Rocky Horror Picture Show party at Giles' house. That's like blackmail ammunition for the rest of my life, and I'm going to get Will in a dress if it kills me," Tiffany said, this time her tiny smile was genuine.

Gerard gave a small laugh, "If you're sure that you want to go…"

Tiffany gave him a mock glare, "Yes, I'm quite sure. Now, go get yourself a dress, Mister."

Gerard just grinned at her, pulling her back into his arms for a kiss.


	11. The Appearance of the Greasy Git

Tiffany and Gerard entered Giles' living room, chatting about the new song My Chemical Romance had been working on. Pausing mid-sentence, Gerard looked at his girlfriend, who had stopped abruptly and was now staring at the occupants of the room. He followed her gaze.

Giles was sitting on the couch with one arm around Emily, the other propped up against the arm of the couch and holding his tea. His glasses were lying on the table near the teapot, and he looked completely relaxed in his black  
pants and brown zip sweater, hair slightly mussed. Emily was curled up next to him, smiling, with her legs tucked underneath her. The girl's homemade white Nine Inch Nails shirt, worn out blue jeans, and dirty old pink  
Converse All Stars stood out against her fiancé's casual yet well-dressed look. On the other end of the couch, William sat with his back against the opposing arm, with his knees drawn up and a sketchpad resting on them as he  
drew. So far, Gerard didn't really see anything out of the ordinary, except that Emily was currently pouring Mountain Dew into a teacup.

"Why are you drinking soda out of a teacup?" Gerard asked, as she sipped from the cup, holding the tiny saucer in one hand. She set it back on the table, smiling.

"Everyone else is drinking out of teacups, I felt kinda left out," she said. Gerard frowned. He noticed Will's tea was sitting on the table, and looked across the room for the first time. Gerard jumped slightly, surprised. He hadn't noticed the other man, who was sitting in the armchair across the room, apparently having tea with the group on the couch.

Seeing Gerard's sudden movement, the man looked up, smirking and setting down his tea. He had his legs crossed almost casually, with his right dragon hide boot propped upon his left knee, its shiny clasps standing out  
against his black trousers. His robes and frock coat, also black, nearly reached the floor, even in his sitting position. He crossed his arms over the many buttons on his chest, his pale features sneering behind a curtain  
of long, black hair. He quirked an eyebrow at Gerard, daring the younger man to speak.

Tiffany, however, was the first to break the silence. "Is that who I think that is? That Snape guy, or whatever?" she asked, turning to Emily in shock. "Why is he here?"

"That's Professor Snape to you, you little chit, and if you had a House, I'd take points for your cheek," the man said snarkily, his voice full of venom. "I'm here," he continued silkily, before pausing for effect, "because Little Miss  
_Almost_-Giles thought this horrendous excuse for written word wasn't up to it's quota on talented, powerful, room-controlling British men."

"I actually said 'broody British men in frock coats,' but Severus does so love to modify adjectives," Emily said, as the professor rolled his eyes at the use of familiarities. She gestured for Tiffany and Gerard to join them  
in the living room. "Come have a sit, guys."

"So how did you get here?" Gerard asked, looking curiously at the dark man as he and Tiffany sat down on the empty couch. Severus Snape sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. After a few moments, he spoke up, thought he was clearly annoyed.

"Albus tricked me. Bloody teacup was a portkey," he said, his eyes landing on the offending cup. "Turns out someone bribed him with several boxes of Lemon Drops," he said scathingly, glaring at Emily. He smirked, and his  
tone gained a hint of admiration as he added, "You'd make a fine Slytherin, Miss-" He paused, not remembering Emily's last name, though he covered the slip-up with a sneer, adding, "soon-to-be Giles."

"How did you… when did you…huh?" Tiffany asked, looking back and forth between the scathing professor and her friend. She was more than slightly confused.

"When I was working in the library in London, I met a lot of people," Emily explained. "Most of them were just random people I never saw again, but there were a few that stood out. An American girl named Melissa, who was  
visiting her sister in London at the time, came in the library and asked for all the books about llamas we had; she'd always wanted a llama, and upon finally getting one, wanted to make sure she took care of it perfectly.  
There was another American girl named Tamra who absolutely adored cows – she didn't want any books, just directions to the nearest dairy farm. There was also, of course, an attractive former librarian by the name of Rupert," she said, smiling at the man in question, "and a quaint older gentleman who was always full of questions." The professor smirked knowingly as she continued. "Albus Dumbledore happens quite fond of Muggle literature. I even directed him to a local comic book store, which suited him well enough. He came in a few times a week, and I helped him find all kinds of books: history, poems, medicine, classic novels, biblical works; you name it, he read it. All I  
had to do was give him a couple boxes of Lemon Drops and help him find his books. I think he was quite happy at the prospect of getting Severus out of the dungeons for a while, anyhow."

Severus scowled at the last sentence, his thoughts of the Headmaster's meddling evident across his features. Tiffany still looked a bit confused, but decided to just have Emily and Will explain it later, sans the sarcastic professor. The professor's teacup chose that moment to glow a faint blue, before fading back to its former luster, revealing that Albus had reactivated the portkey.

"Your wand, Severus?" Giles asked, holding out the object. The professor rose from his seat, crossing the room in a few short strides. His robes billowed behind him, snapping the air when he stopped to retrieve his property. He still couldn't believe Albus had factored in _that_ little bit - he felt quite uncomfortabe without his wand, thought he didn't show it. Taking the wand from Giles, he shook the man's proffered hand, his face void of all emotion.

"Feel free to stop by for a visit sometime, Severus," Giles said, politely. "I have a nice arsenal of weaponry I'm sure you'd be interested in seeing," he added, smiling mischievously. Professor Snape nodded curtly, before striding back to the portkey.

"Don't think you'll get away with this little endeavor, Miss," he said silkily, picking up the cup. He smirked before disappearing with a small pop. The man could make a dramatic exit out of anything.

"So, who's up for the movie?" Giles said cheerily, beaming as he put his glasses back on. "We've got all the props in the kitchen, let's get this party going!"


	12. Sweet Transvestite

After surveying the props, cleaning and reorganizing Giles' living room, and hooking up the large television they were going to use, the group sat collapsed on the couch, somehow managing to all fit on it (it was suspected that Tiffany had, in fact, made the couch bigger). The props were lined up neatly in sequential order on the coffee table in front of them, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show DVD was ready to go, sitting neatly in the DVD player. All they had to do now was don their costumes, get some refreshments, and hit play.

Not one of them, however, was going to move for at least five minutes. Tiffany was leaning on Gerard, who was using the arm of the couch as a pillow. Giles, at the other end, was leaning his head against the back of the couch. Emily's head lay on his shoulder, with Will's on her own. Tiffany coughed rather suspiciously, and the drinks everyone had been craving appeared on the table. Giles pretended not to notice, eventually drinking his tea as if it hadn't magically appeared.

"You now we're going to be throwing this stuff in your living room, right?" Tiffany asked, picking up a handful of rice and letting it sift through her fingers back into the bowl. She looked at Giles inquisitively.

The former librarian removed his glasses, and began cleaning them. "Yes, I am aware," he confirmed. "In fact, I planned on asking you to use your... _abilities_ after we're finished to make sure everything gets cleaned up properly."

Tiffany opened her mouth to reply, but Giles held up a hand, stopping her. "Yes," he added, "I realize that I said never to use your powers for such facetious matters - but I don't want rice in my carpet for eternity."

The brunette grinned, and gave a nod. "No problemo," she said, cheerfully, getting up from the couch and crossing the room. She returned a few seconds later with several plastic bags, no doubt containing some of their costumes. "Now we should probably all get dressed, since, you know, that's part of the whole participation thing. But no wigs - they're kind of off-putting, don't you think?"

No one on the couch moved.

"Come on, guys, you have to be women. And Emily, you have to be a slut," Tiffany chided.

"Well, I-" Giles began, but was cut off by a tiny whine from Emily.

"You promised you'd wear it," she pouted, looking deeply saddened. Giles looked as if he contemplated giving in. Emily's pouty face was, of course, all powerful.

"I don't understand why I alone have to wear women's clothing. There are two other men here, and they're dressed quite normally," Giles stated, looking at Emily pointedly.

"You _own_ high heels!" Emily argued, glaring at him.

"So does he!" Giles retorted, gesturing to Gerard, "So why isn't he in a bloody corset!"

"He's Magenta," Tiffany explained. "No corset for him - just this great French Maid outfit that makes him look so-" she trailed off, still holding up the bag with the outfit she'd been talking about. "Anyway, he's going to wear it, it's in the bag," she informed.

Giles gave a sigh, looking down at Emily. "And what of William?"

"Who are you going to be, Will?" Emily asked, as the man in question looked up. He shrugged.

"I guess I'll be Brad," he said, "I didn't bring anything with me." He looked down at his Siouxsie and the Banshees tee and dark jeans.

"Brad is always in his underwear," Gerard piped up, joining the conversation. Giles shook his head.

Will's eyes widened a bit. "I'm not gonna-"

"It's either that or you're in drag, dear," Tiffany interrupted, raising her hand as if she were about to snap her fingers. "I can snap you up a costume, either way."

"Who am I supposed to be?" he questioned, "Giles is Frank, Gerard's Magenta, and Columbia's outfit is more boyish, anyway."

Tiffany nodded. "You're right, but she's in a corset and high heels at the end. I think we can settle for that…Without the makeup, of course," she said, smiling evilly.

"I'm not doing anything without pants!" Will said defensively, crossing his arms over his chest. Tiffany rolled her eyes.

"Fine, I'm sure you could wear some of Gee's leather pants, with a nice corset top and some stilettos," Tiffany replied.

Emily giggled, looking at Will's horrified expression. The man knew he was trapped. He glared at the girls, knowing they would eventually win, but refusing to go peacefully.

"Giles, why aren't you dressed yet?" Tiffany asked, turning to the host. Emily looked at him sternly, and he got up off the couch, sighing in defeat and heading towards the bedroom.

"I'm- I-" Will fumbled, looking from Tiffany to Emily, his gaze pleading for help.

"Honey," Gerard spoke up, causing Tiffany to look at him curiously. "I don't think he'd fit in my pants," he stated, a smirk firmly on his lips as his eyes slid over Will's sitting form.

"Are you calling him fat?" Emily asked in disbelief, though her tone implied an unspoken threat.

"Absolutely not," Gerard assured, looking at Emily with his eyes full of mischief, the smirk still on his face. "I think he's a bit _endowed_; they'd be uncomfortable."

Tiffany immediately began giggling hysterically, once she was actually able to breathe and make any noise at all. Will and Emily both gaped for a few seconds, before Will's embarrassed face turned a furious shade of red, and Emily glared at Gerard. The rock star just stood calmly, the smirk never leaving his features.

"Gerard!" Tiffany said in an annoyed tone, "Stop hitting on my male friends!"

Emily snickered at the pair. Will's blush had faded away, and he was now watching the unfolding scene with amusement.

"I do _not_ hit on your-" Gerard started to retort, but stopped abruptly as Giles returned to the room. The older man was fully decked out as Frank N' Furter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, thought his eyebrows were quite a bit tamer. Gerard's mouth opened slightly as he stared at the man with an almost awe-like expression. Giles' hair was attractively mussed, and he was without his glasses. Instead, his eyes were lined and covered in black, with his lips painted a glorious shade of crimson. He wore a black corset that laced up in front and fit him snugly, allowing just a small line of skin below it to show. Over it he donned a small leather jacket, which was covered in various pins, patches, chains, and studs. Beneath the jacket, his black fishnet half-finger gloves were visible, sparkling like the numerous articles of jewelry he wore. Nothing but black satin skivvies covered the lower portion of his body, with a garter belt above them. Black silver-clasped straps attached to his ripped fishnet stockings, which traveled all the way down his shaved legs to meet the stilettos he'd purchased earlier that week. In his left hand, he held a long leather whip.

"Now I see why Emily stays with him," Gerard said, openly gaping. The girl in question swooned in her seat, and was caught by both Will and Gerard as she nearly fell off the couch. She stared appreciatively at her fiancé for a few seconds before getting up and walking over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Realization finally dawned on Tiffany, and she hit Gerard lightly on the arm for his gaping at Giles, before ordering him to go get changed. Giles took one of Emily's hands, and started to lead her back to the couch.

"For the love of everything, Giles!" Tiffany yelled, covering her eyes with her left hand as she snapped with her right. The man in drag stopped and looked down as a tiny black mini-skirt appeared over his underwear. Emily frowned, looking at her all-powerful friend.

"Pout all you want, I don't care," Tiffany said, finally uncovering her eyes, "I don't want to see that much of Giles ever again. And you're about to be in your underwear, too, remember?"

Tiffany snapped again, this time changing Emily's wardrobe. The short girl's hair curled slightly, and her makeup changed to match that of Janet Weiss. Her shoes changed to a small pair of white Mary Janes. Will covered his eyes as she was immediately clad in nothing but a white bra, underwear, and half-slip.

"And I don't want to see that much of Emily ever again," he said dully, reiterating Tiffany's previous statement. Giles took off his jacket, wrapping it around his fiancé's shoulders as she blushed furiously. He took her hand in his, leading her to the couch as he had intended before the impromptu wardrobe changes.

Tiffany smiled viciously as Giles sat down, pulling Emily into his lap, and thought of Will's costume. _'Geez,'_ she thought,_ 'Emily always seems to be in his lap, whether she sits there or not. Now what are we going to do about Will?'_

"So, Will, about your costume..." Tiffany trailed off, smiling innocently. A distant yell of, 'he'd better be in freakin' girl clothes!' was heard from Gerard as he dressed in the other room. Tiffany's eyes lit up as an idea occurred to her.

"Well, he can't be Brad or Rocky, since neither of them are in drag until the floorshow, and we're not touching that," she said, "so I guess.."

She snapped her fingers, and William's outfit changed dramatically. He had a corset similar to Giles', thought it was a bit more modest, and a blood-red mini-skirt. He also sported fishnets and a garter belt like the older man, but his sparkling silver heels were much less severe. His eyes were shadowed slightly, with his lips lined in black and filled-in a deep red.

"We'll just have two Franks," Tiffany finished. She snapped again, and a long black and silver cape with a stand-up collar appeared folded on his lap. He hurriedly stood up and put the cape on, wrapping it around himself before sitting back down, still feeling exposed. Tiffany left the room, mumbling something about making sure Gerard was still alive.

"It's okay Will," Emily said, "I'm in my skivvies... and look at Rupert!" The Sweet Transvestite wrapped his arms around his fiancé, kissing her lightly on the cheek and leaving a nice crimson lipstick smudge. He looked sympathetically at his character duplicate.

"At least she went easy on you with the heels, and let you have the cape," Giles added reassuringly. Will smiled slightly at them, pulling the shimmery garment closer around himself. It was going to be a long night.


	13. The Pantsless Dance

Buffy and Angel walked hand-in-hand to Giles' house. Earlier, they had met with Faith and Caitlin who, along with Max and Gunn, were headed to do recon on their latest creepy-crawly. The couple was hoping that Giles could help them figure out the best course of action with their latest creature feature.

Reaching the steps of the Watcher's apartment, they could her music coming from inside. It was very unlike Giles to tolerate loud noise blaring the speakers, even when Emily was there, and the tunes that they the pair was hearing were strange, at best.

"What are they doing?" Angel asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know," she replied, "but Tiffany's car is here, along with that black PT Cruiser, which makes me sure of two things: one: she planned whatever is going on in there; and two: Giles is hating every second of it."

"I'm thinking you're right," Angel agreed, giving a tiny nod.

"If I know Giles, he'll be even more eager to help if it'll get him out of something Tiffany planned," Buffy added, before reaching out and turning the doorknob.

Pushing the door open, she found herself wishing with every fiber of her being that she hadn't done so. Angel stood behind her, with a slight look of disgust on his face. Buffy remained unmoving in the doorway, staring at the scene before her in a daze.

All of the furniture in Giles' living room had been pushed against the walls, except for the biggest couch and a small coffee table nearby. A large television had been put in front of the fireplace, and was playing a very loud and musical movie. The floor in front of the television (and most everywhere else in the living room, for that matter) was littered with uncooked white rice. The table had various objects scattered about on its surface - lighters, newspapers, a plate of toast, and some water guns - as well as several bottles of Diet Coke, Mountain Dew, and Green Tea. Sadly, that wasn't what disturbed her.

Buffy's eyes bulged, as she looked at the party-goers in her former Watcher's living room. They were all dancing and singing quite loudly in the space between the couch and the TV, and therefore hadn't noticed her entry. Her mouth dropped open as she examined their outfits more closely; that was no maid - it was Tiffany's boyfriend!

The maid in question was standing next to Tiffany in the circle of dressed-up fans, as they did some obscure dance that made Buffy thankful that her former Watcher was facing _away _from her. Gerard's hair was parted in the center and teased out as far as it could possibly go, and then some, with a white maid's hat sitting atop the mountain of hair spray-induced frizz. He wore a black button-up dress with elbow-length sleeves, and had a few of the first and last buttons undone. Two white straps came down from his shoulders, connecting to the small apron around his waist. The hem of the dress came to his knees, and was met by a pair of black fishnets. Large combat boots completed his costume. Buffy shuddered, glad that the dress was at least long enough to keep her from seeing most of Gerard.

Next on her list of horrors were Tiffany and Emily. Tiffany was sporting an obscenely bright gold-sequined tailcoat, with matching top hat. She also wore black satin shorts and fishnets, with black heeled tapping shoes and blue socks. Emily was barely wearing any clothes at all, though she was, Buffy thought thankfully, at least covered up more than most music video stars these days.

"Let's do the Time Warp..."

The group abruptly stopped singing.

"AGAIN!" Tiffany yelled enthusiastically, looking up when she noticed she was alone in her efforts. The group had stopped, and was gazing at the door, where Buffy and Angel stared at them with horrified looks. Tiffany simultaneously growled and sighed, while turning off the movie.

"So, uh... you guys like the Rocky Horror Picture Show?" Tiffany asked, trying to break the awkward silence.

While she was explaining exactly what a transvestite was, Giles reached up to remove the glasses on his face, cursing when he realized he'd taken them off. Will snickered quietly and nudged Emily, who nodded in acknowledgement as she took Giles's hand. The poor man, embarrassed in front of his Slayer, and Angel to boot, and didn't even have his nervous tic to fall back on.

"We'll just come back later, when Giles is less womanly," Buffy said. There was a slight look of fear on her face as she smiled.

Angel nodded, and the pair was gone before Tiffany could argue otherwise.

"They'll never look at me the same again," Giles said dryly, as he sat on the couch, legs crossed, and watched as his house was cleaned spotless by the (only _slightly_) obsessive-compulsive Tiffany. The rice was gone; the furniture back in its rightful place, and everything was now even more organized than it had been before. After her task was done, Tiffany plopped down the couch with a satisfied smirk.

"Yeah, I'm glad there weren't any pictures of that, 'cause they'd never respect me at work again," Will added, looking skeptically at his mini-skirt. He carefully sat on the couch Emily and Giles shared.

Tiffany grinned mischievously as she snapped her fingers, changing everyone out of their Show ensemble. Her sparkling attire became a pair of blue jeans, a Black Parade T-shirt, and pair of brightly colored Roos. Gerard raised his arm slightly to inspect the Victorian-style sleeves of his new jacket, nodding approvingly at its red and black color scheme. His pants were also black, as were his leather boots, belt with bat-buckle, and t-shirt. His raven-colored locks fell slightly into his face, now no longer supported by the mass quantities of hairspray. In his inspection, he failed to notice the reactions of the other two males in the room.

Giles' mouth was actually hanging open as he gazed to his left, and Will was staring to his right with an odd look on his face.

Emily was now dressed in a long, black, strapless corset dress. The bottom of the skirt was cut in angular pattern, the back falling to her ankles, while the front came up to just below her knees, with numerous layers of tool sticking out from underneath it. Most of the layers were black, but there were a few deep red layers to give it a hint of color. Her hair was still slightly curly, partially pulled back out of her face, and she wore bright red lipstick and a thin layer of eyeliner. Fishnets and strappy heels, that were tall-but not too tall-adorned her feet.

"Look," Tiffany grinned, "I made everybody pretty," she said, clapping her hands. She looked appreciatively at Gerard, who was smiling at the return of his favorite belt-buckle.

Giles gulped, but his reaction was drowned out in fiancé's squeal as she turned to face the man on her left.

"Will!" Emily beamed, cheesily, "You look adorable!"

William looked down, wondering what had replaced of the flowy cape and other offending garments. He was happy to note that Tiffany had changed him into a pair of black bondage pants, boots, and a She Wants Revenge T-shirt... under the pink apron and matching oven mitts he now donned. Tiffany snapped again, removing the mitts and apron as the man blushed slightly.

"Thanks, guys," he said, recalling his earlier wish. There was a small pause as Giles continued to gape at Emily. She crossed her legs, adjusting the bottom of her dress a bit.

"Goodnight everyone," Giles said suddenly, breaking from his reverie. In one fluid movement, he rose from the couch and scooped up a surprised Emily, carrying her a few quick (and loud) paces before he stopped in his heel-clad tracks.

"Tiffany," he growled, "Would you care to tell me why I'm still in women's clothing?"

The group's laughter stopped as Giles turned slightly, glaring icily at them all. Gerard's eyes bulged slightly, and Will mumbled something about a business meeting as he slipped off the guest bedroom.

"I'm not stupid," she said, "I don't want to fear the wrath of Emily."

Gerard looked at his girlfriend. "I think the wrath of Giles is what you should be worrying about right now," he said, before adding with a smirk, "and the well-being of that skirt he's wearing. I don't know how long it's gonna last in that condition."

Tiffany covered her eyes, snapping blindly as she tried to erase her boyfriend's words from her mind. Emily giggled at her fiancé's new appearance - he was dressed in a grey tweed suit, complete with a red sweater-vest, and his glasses had returned to his face. The former librarian, now completely looking the part, grinned roguishly as he carried Emily away.

Gerard got up, wrapping his arm around Tiffany as he led her away from the couch. She leaned her head against his shoulder as he turned out the lights and locked the door, shutting it behind them on their way out.

"Something tells me, he's going to do more than check her out," Gerard said, as they made their way across Giles' lawn.

Tiffany linked arms with the front man, giving him a mock glare, "C'mon, mister, you're going to go buy me a latte to drown those horrible mental images in." she informed him.

The dark-haired vocalist just grinned at her, as they continued to cross the distance to her car.


	14. I'll Meet You at the Cemetery Gates

**Chapter Fourteen:**

Gerard walked alongside Tiffany, as they scoured the seemingly endless rows of headstones. It was their night to patrol, and Emily, Giles, and Will were following a few yards behind. They had opted to go to the Restfield Cemetery since it was the closest to Giles' apartment, which is where they had departed from.

"Why are there no vampires?" Tiffany inquired, looking over her shoulder to let Giles know she was speaking to him. She assumed the ex-watcher knew all reasoning behind the ebb and flow of the vampire population.

"Well, Tiffany, I regret to inform you that I have absolutely no idea as to why the demonic population has been so scarce as of late-" Giles admitted, tucking his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

The brunette frowned, toying with the stake in her hand.

"There's some kind of horrible evil happening that we don't know about. An evil uprising," Tiffany surmised.

Giles looked at her, and shook his head, "Actually, I'm quite sure it's simple a natural flux and the vampires will be maiming at full force very, very soon."

"They better or I'll have to start conjuring some evil of my own to keep me entertained. Maybe a new boy band, that's evil, right?" Tiffany asked, looking at Gerard for confirmation.

The rock star nodded, and tiffany smiled, "I could be an evil genius. Flailing gnomes, and destroying rainforests, and stealing towels from hotels. Oh yeah, that's evil."

Emily looked at her as if she were retarded, and was about to comment on Tiffany's ridiculously dumb statement when the girl gave a giddy squeak, "kitty!" she yelled, pointing at the tiny, furry animal in her view, before giving chase.

Gerard watched his girlfriend, shaking his head at her behavior. He couldn't help but chuckle as she tripped over a tombstone and fell onto the crisp grass.

"Suga, do you need some help?" Gerard asked, following after her.

"Absolutely not, I'm fine," Tiffany assured him, as she scurried towards the tiny animal as it hopped just out of her grasp. The brunette whined, following the kitten directly into a mausoleum.

"I'll go help her," Emily sighed, quickly following her easily distracted friend into the ancient stone structure.

As soon as Emily entered, a large gust of wind blew through the cemetery causing the door to shut on the mausoleum.

"Well, that seems a tad bit ominous," Giles said, worriedly. He walked briskly to the mausoleum and reached for the handle, but before he could open it the door seemed to weld together, just before a large gate crackling with obviously mystically energy fell over it, barely missing Giles' outstretched hand.

"Bloody hell," Giles cursed.

Gerard watched the crackling gate, open mouthed.

A second later a loud banging could be heard from inside, "Get me out of here! I have to see Robert Smith before I die!" the banging continued, "I'M SO CLOSE!'

Emily's voice was drowned out by Tiffany's triumphant cry, "I GOT THE KITTY!" The banging ceased for a moment, and they could hear Emily's loud 'aww', followed by ,"That's the most adorable kitten I've ever seen."

Giles and Gerard looked at one another, "I believe they are the only two people who could adopt a feline at a time like this."

"They're adorable," Gerard grinned.

"Emily is the single most adorable creature I've ever had the pleasure of encountering," Giles stated.

"I beg to differ. Has Emily ever threw a teenager into the fountain at a mall because they were trying to molest you?"

Giles shook his head, "Thankfully, no. But she did buy me a book."

Gerard rolled his eyes, "Because Lord knows you have a shortage of those…"

Giles smirked, "A book that I did not have," he stated, pointedly, "A first edition with the original binding."

"Tiffany bought me a light saber, and her socks never match. And she has OCD, AND…" Gerard challenged, but was cut off by the former watcher.

"Well-" Giles began to retort but Will cut the pair short.

"I believe we should focus on the task at hand," he stated, looking at the mausoleum door.

Gerard and Giles smiled sheepishly , and a voice could be heard from inside the structure.

"Be quiet, Will. We're learning about our endearing qualities," Emily said.

"Okay, we have to get them out of there." Gerard said, stating the obvious.

Will, feeling he'd served his purpose well, flopped down with his back against a tombstone. He pulled a comic book from his coat, and began flipping through it. This one he'd acquired when Gerard left it on Giles' coffee table.

"Maybe I can climb up there-" Giles said, gesturing to the roof of the structure.

Tiffany and Emily could be heard conversing behind the door, "What should I name him?"

There was no reply for a second and then Emily's giddy reply of, "JAMES!", could be heard.

"James?"

"Yes. Robert JAMES Smith," her friend reminded.

Tiffany gave an 'oh' of understanding, and then gave a giddy giggle, "Do you remember James?" she asked.

Emily paused and then gave a squeak of realization, "James…" she said, suggestively.

Giles and Gerard looked at one another, as Tiffany giggled, "Yeah, _that _James."

"He was effin' gorgeous. Do you remember that growl?" Emily cut herself short, and there was silence as if the pair remembered they could be heard, "I mean, I love my tweed-clad Giles."

Will raised an eyebrow as the two men stared at the door, curiously.

"I mean…Help! Help! We're trapped in a mausoleum!" Tiffany deadpanned.

"Oh my gosh! Ralph passed out, I knew he was claustrophobic, but I had no idea it was this bad!" Emily yelled.

Will chuckled, but this time didn't look up from his comic.

"Who the hell is Ralph?" Gerard asked, running a hand through his hair and looking to Giles for an explanation.

"My fiancés imaginary friend," Giles sighed.

"He's no imaginary! He's just invisible!" Emily yelled from behind the door.

Giles took that moment as an opportunity to shake his head and clean his glasses, as was his custom in times of stress.

Buffy and Angel walked quietly along the streets of Sunnydale. They were patrolling as per usual, and had already hit 3 of the 12 cemeteries in Sunnydale in less than an hour. Normally it would have been more than just the two of them, but Gunn, Jaden, Faith, and Caitlin had decided to go out that evening, so the preternatural pair was alone. Not that it bothered them. They were accustomed to patrolling with no one but each other.

Walking by Restfield Cemetery, they both surveyed the large cemetery with its massive gates, and seemingly endless rows of headstones.

"Do you think we should do a sweep?" Angel inquired, looking at Buffy for her opinion.

The petite slayer gave a shake of her head, "We were there earlier tonight, I think we should just hit the one across town and then call it a night. The forces of darkness that remain will just have to wait until tomorrow for us to kill them if they're in there," she stated, shrugging a bit.

Angel gave a bit of a shrug, as they continued down the street, "You're the boss," he smirked.

Buffy grinned, "You got that right, Mister. Besides, nothing really ever happens at Restfield anyway," she reminded, taking the vampire's hand as they continued on their quest for vampires.

"Don't 'get in a bate about it, love" Giles said, soothingly, searching the outside of the mausoleum for a way to get his fiancé out. "I'm going to get you out of there as soon as I can."

"Don't get in a bate about it?" Emily yelled, her shriek resonating in the small tomb. "I'm trapped in a bleeding scuzzy mausoleum! I can't see, it smells something horrific, and Tiffany is still play that freaking cat!"

Giles opened his mouth to speak, glaring angrily at the stone wall. Will, however, cut off the older man's tirade.

"She's bloody claustrophobic, you git." he said, not even looking up from his stolen comic, "This is no time to have a fight with her."

Giles pressed his hands against the cool stone exterior.

Gerard had walked to the other side of the building, helping Giles in his search for an alternate entrance.

"I had no idea," Giles said, softly, his words nearly inaudible, "Emily…I apologize profusely. I assure you, I _will _get you out of there in the least amount of time possible. You should have told me you were claustrophobic."

Emily's voice was small when she answered a few seconds later, "I'm not usually," she said, "It's just…dark. And I don't know what's in here." The girl's speech was speeding up, indicating her anxiety, "And I don't know how to get out and I'm scared and I'm afraid to move because I don't know where the corpse in her is and, and.."

You'd better do something before she has a panic attack," Will said, closing the comic book with a look of concern on his face. Emily's voice had trailed off and they could now hear Tiffany trying to console her with the kitten. The anxiety of the moment dissolved as Gerard let forth a triumphant cry.

"I made it!" he said, ecstatically, walking across the top of the mausoleum, "I'm on the roof!"

"He's on the roof?" Tiffany's voice piped worriedly, "He's clumsier than me!"

"I am not!" Gerard said, indignantly, as he slipped sliding across the roof. He managed to catch himself, but didn't press the argument with his girlfriend.

"I think I've found it," Giles announced, gesturing to a protruding brick on the side of the structure. Will rose and came to stand a few feet away from Giles, while Gerard remained stationary on the roof. He wasn't taking any more chances of falling.

"If I just push this brick in.." Giles explained, doing just as he said. A crackling sound was heard, as the brick conformed with the rest of its counterparts, and a purplish-blue jolt of dark magic was sent through Giles' arm.

"Bloody hell," Will said, as Giles flew backwards, landing on his back a few feet away. He groaned loudly, muttering a string of curses as he tried, and failed to move. To make matters even worse, the brick had apparently been a trigger to a trap door which opened abruptly under Giles' prone form.

A thud was heard as the already pained man fell into the newly opened pit.

"It doesn't get much more painful than this," he muttered darkly.

"What happened?" Gerard asked, loudly, running across the mausoleum. He stopped before her reached the edge, peering down at Giles' crumpled form, "Are you okay?"

"Bloody fantastic," Giles answered, sarcastically, still lying motionless at the bottom of the pit.

"Rupert! What is going on our there?" Emily demanded from inside the stone structure.

Gerard jumped, successfully losing his balance. He tried to right himself, scrambling to stay on the roof but failed. Seconds later, eh landed roughly on the ground.

"Okay, what was that? What's going on!" Tiffany asked, her tone annoyed.

Gerard grumbled for a moment, before replying, "I fell off the roof," he said, simply.

"YOU FELL OFF THE ROOF?" Tiffany exclaimed with shock, "Are you all right?"

"It hurts a lot, but I don't think I broke anything." Gerard continued, "Thank God I didn't fall into that giant hole."

The rock star then moved to get up, rolling slightly to his left. He cursed as he fell yet again, landing with a sickening crunch on top of Giles.

"Did that really just happen?" Will asked, rhetorically, staring in disbelief.

A few groans were heard as the two men tried to move, followed by, "Your knee is in my spine, can you move?" and the reply, "You're on top of me, you dolt!" The men's further arguing was cut short by Tiffany and Emily's furious yelling as they demanded an explanation of what was going on.

"It's better if you don't know," Will said, bluntly, staring down into the pit in disbelief. Shaking his head at the two men, he approached the mausoleum inspecting where the door had once been. He carefully ran his hands over the cool stone, wary of what had happened to Giles. He pulled way a bit of ivy, noticing something underneath.

After pushing away a large overgrowth of green, he stood back, smirking.

"I found it, guys" he said, flipping a small switch. The large gate went up, no longer mystically charged, and the doors that were seemingly together creaked, opening slowly. Will was attacked by Emily, who practically tackled him as she rushed out of the tomb, giving him a furious hug. The kitten also ran, sprinting away into the darkness.

Tiffany walked out , sadly mourning the loss of her kitten and joined the hug.

"He was just so cute and…fuzzy…and kitten-like," Tiffany pouted, looking sadly from Emily to Will. The man looked very uncomfortable to say the least.

"I'm deeply sorry for the loss of your pet," he cooed, sarcastically, "I know that it's hard, you had him so long and all, now get off me please?"

Tiffany gaped like a fish, detaching herself from him and punching him in the arm slightly harder than she normally would. He rubbed his arm as Emily let go and the girls moved to check on Giles and Gerard.

Reaching the opening of the hole that their beaus had fallen into, Tiffany and Emily warily peered over the edge. Meanwhile, Will had returned to look at the mausoleum, searching for something to remedy the trap door.

"Are you guys okay?" Emily asked, worriedly.

The rock star was sitting with his back against the earthen wall, playing with the ends of his hair. The usually calm British man was pacing violently, holding his glasses in his right hand. The seated male was obviously trying to ignore the gentleman's tirade. They both looked up at Emily, and Gerard opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the angry former librarian.

"I'm bloody fabulous!" He yelled, "It really makes my day when I'm thrown across a graveyard and fall into a bloody pit! I'm especially enthralled when little, rich ponces fall on top of me and whine incessantly," he concluded.

"He's not a ponce," Tiffany grumbled, looking at Gerard, apologetically.

Gerard gave his girlfriend a tiny smile, but didn't' say anything because he was afraid to incite yet another explosive speech from Giles.

"Honey, calm down," Emily said, gently, still looking down at her angry fiancé.

He gave a deep sigh and placed his glasses back upon his face, "Calm down? Emily, we have no bloody idea how to get out of here!" he reminded, before resuming his pacing.

Emily sighed and looked at Tiffany, her face full of annoyance. She hated when Giles got like this, and was quite glad it didn't happen often.

Gerard stood, brushing off his pants, and smoothing down his mussed hair. This caused Giles to mutter a 'Nancy boy' at the male, who ignored him and looked up at Tiffany.

"Maybe we can get a rope or something," he suggested, giving a tiny shrug, "It's deep, but a rope should work."

Tiffany gave a nod, "Yeah, I'm sure the three of us could pull you guys out," she stated, crouching down next to the hole. She looked around, curiously, and then looked at Emily, "Where's Will?" she asked, standing and looking around for their friend.

"There's no need for rope," Will smirked, once more flipping a switch he had discovered under the moss and ivy. Tiffany and Emily looked at him, curiously, spotting him by the stone structure.

The pacing British man gave an 'oomph' as the pit began to rise slowly to reach the level of the rest of the graveyard. Putting him off balance, he once more fell to the ground with a loud curse.

Gerard stepped away from the wall, almost falling on the sprawled out Giles. The bottom of the pit came to a halt, with Gerard standing next o Emily, Tiffany, and Will; while Giles lay cursing on the ground.

Emily immediately crouched by Giles, trying to calm him. Tiffany, on the other hand, bounced up and down excitedly and threw her arms around Gerard.

Will watched the quartet, and gave a self-satisfied smirk, "And Bob's your uncle," he concluded. He picked up his newly acquired comic book before muttering something about the couples as he walked away.

"Will! Don't go off pouting! Get back here , mister!" Emily said, removing herself from Giles' person and running after Will.

The male innocently flipped through the comic book as Giles tutted indignantly. Will turned just as Emily dove for him, throwing the comic book to Gerard, who in turn dove quite dramatically, shouting a slow 'nooooo' in his stead, and hitting the ground harder than necessary, comic book in hand.

At the same time, Will toppled to the ground. Emily falling ungracefully on top of him. Unfortunately, the ground was not level ,and the pair rolled a few feet before skidding to a halt as they hit a tree.

"I saved the comic book," Gerard yelled, triumphantly, but his sentiment was lost for at the same moment, Will yelled a strangled, 'bloody 'ell" and Emily squeaked something that sounded like ,"I have beard burn, you git! I told you to freaking shave!"

Tiffany and Giles stared in horror, as Gerard dusted himself off, holding the comic book protectively.

Will sighed dramatically, as neither he nor Emily moved. Tiffany let forth a fit of giggles she'd been holding in as Giles continued to scoff, glaring at the pile that was Emily and Will.

"Somebody's jealous," Gerard said, absently, not looking at Giles. The older man turned his glare about the accuser, as Tiffany shook her head, sadly.

"Well, of course I'm bloody jealous, you twit, a man half my age is lying on the ground with his arms around my fiancé. What am I supposed to do? Bring him along on the honeymoon?"

"I am not- do not, oh-bugger!" Will stumbled looking at Emily. Realizing just how close they were, the two tried to untangle themselves, but only ended up more entwined.

"Bloody bondage straps!" Will yelled, cursing Emily's choice of clothing. Emily tried once gain to free herself from the mess, them muttered her defeat and leaned back against Will. The male, however, continued to struggle against the object entangling them.

"All right, I've had enough of this rubbish, I'm coming down there," Giles said, walking briskly towards the tangled duo.

Tiffany looked pointedly at Gerard, but he quickly opened the comic book not wanting to face the fury of Giles. She sighed and rushed down the small decline to help her friends.

The brunette skirted around the British gentleman, and crouched by the tangled pair. She skillfully untangled Emily from the cynical male, which was easier now that they had once more stopped flailing.

"Does this happen a lot?" Will asked, offering Emily a hand to get her off the ground when they were finally free.

Giles annoyed even more that Tiffany had reached the pair first, furiously cleaned his glasses.

"Much more often than it should," Emily said, sighing deeply.

"I had to untangle her from an entire mosh pit once," Tiffany recounted.

Will gave a small chuckle as the trio walked back up the small incline and stood next to Giles, who had just returned his glasses to his face.

Gerard's voice suddenly broke the silence, "Hey! I have this comic!" she stated, tucking it back against his chest, and crossing the distance to his friends.

Will smirked and Giles once more scoffed, "Let's just bloody go home," he said, leading them towards the cemetery entrance.

"What!" Gerard asked curiously. He looked at Tiffany, who just shook her head and took the vocalist free hand, as they followed Giles towards the gates of the cemetery.

"Yeah, we gotta get some sleep, so we'll be all ready for that concert tomorrow," Emily said, "I get to see Robert Smith tomorrow!" she beamed at the group.

Will smiled contentedly, as Giles raised a hand to his temple, "Oh, bloody hell…"


	15. Freak on a Leash

"Oh bloody hell," Will cursed, as the trio began to navigate their way through the masses of people.

Tiffany couldn't help but giggle as the tall male gave a disapproving glare at yet another blonde girl who had bumped into him.

"Why are there so many people?" he asked, his voice an anxiety-filled whine.

Tiffany rolled her eyes, as Emily muttered an unintelligible string of words, which she was sure was something cynical and pessimistic. Will's laugh about her comment was quickly transformed into a scowl, however, as he was pulled away from the pair by a careless passerby. She stumbled, mere inches from crashing to the ground before Will caught her and pulled her into her previous upright position.

"JERK!" Tiffany yelled at the man, receiving a very obscene finger in return as he walked away. She turned to Emily, "From now on, you stay attached to him!" she said, then addressed Will, "And you! WATCH HER! She's tiny! And short! And, and-other synonyms for itty bitty!"

Will glanced at Tiffany, oddly, but she stared him down. Sighing loudly, he took Emily's wrist and pulled her toward him. Tiffany continued to glare, and Will looked at her quizzically, obviously unsure what she wanted him to do now. The brunette then stepped forward, unsnapping one of Emily's bondage straps and attached it to Will's belt loops.

Will looked at the offending strap in horror, "I refuse to be literally attached to her! What would Giles say?" he challenged the still glaring brunette.

Tiffany feigned a British accent, "Oh, thank heavens that my fiancé was not trampled by mindless Sunnydale denizens," she smirked.

"You're complaining?" Emily said, snidely, "I'm the one being treated like a bloody child! I'm on a LEASH!"

Tiffany coughed, "Freak on a leash…" grinning, before rolling her eyes, "If you guys don' shut up, I'm going to go backstage and leave you two-the lords of social anxiety-alone in this mass of 13 year olds!"

Will and Emily sobered noticeably, their expressions fading and then being replaced with overzealous happy ones.

"Right-o," Will said, smiling broadly, and pulling Emily against his side, "I shan't lose her."

"That's what I thought," Tiffany stated, dragging the pair towards the stage. They had front and center seats, thanks to Gerard, who had even exchanged Will's ticket for a better one.

They reached their destination; and Tiffany, Emily, (and consequently William), moved mere inches from the stage. The security guards next to them glared disapprovingly-Tiffany simply beamed at them. On the other hand, Emily and Will averted their gazes, and fidgeted a bit.

"My boyfriend's in the band," Tiffany smiled, still looking at the male in uniform. She bounced back and forth energetically, resembling a giddy school girl.

"I'm sure," the male dismissed, obviously not believing her.

The brunette gave a defeated sigh and turned to Will and Emily. They were looking at the stage, intently, as if expecting Robert Smith to materialize. When nothing happened, they both began chattering quietly about what might take place after the show.

Sighing, Will plopped down in his seat, tired of standing. Emily sat in the seat to his right, spacing out as if she were thinking deeply about something. That something was, no doubt, Robert Smith, he thought, as he fidgeted with the cuffs of his black button up shirt, watching as Tiffany waved giddily at the drum techs. The excited girl sat down after a few minutes, looking curiously at her shortest friend, who was now smirking.  
Both friends watched with undivided attention as Emily slid out of her chair, situating herself in the floor in front of her seat. She pulled out a white t-shirt, spreading it before her in the floor. Grinning, the small girl pulled out a black sharpie and began boldly lettering across the front of the shirt.

"Aw, it's your first Cure show, I forgot," Will said sentimentally, as he watched his protégé.

Hopefully her first Cure show would be as amazing as his was, but he was sure it would be after all, they had backstage passes! They were going to get to talk to THE Robert Smith. He smiled, before snapping out of his nostalgia, shaking his head slightly as he looked back at Emily.

She was still sitting in the floor, leaning over the white shirt as she furiously inked the words she'd drawn on. When she was satisfied with her work, she stood up, tucking the sharpie back in her pocket. She gave a triumphant 'ha' as she held up her new creation to inspect it. Smiling widely, she pulled the shirt over her head and smoothed it out, fixing the black shirt that she'd already been wearing underneath it. She waited for her friends' reactions.

Tiffany shrieked, covering her mouth in appall as she read the shirt. Will tilted his head, smirking, as he looked at Emily. His expression was slightly disturbed, yet amused. The younger Cure-aholic grinned at his approval.

"Robert can take me down Fascination Street?" Tiffany read aloud, still shocked. "What is Giles going to say about this? How do you think --HE'S GOING TO KILL ME FOR THIS!"

Emily giggled, admiring her craftiness once again. "He won't know unless you tell him," she said, "and even then, he knows I've got no chance of sleeping with Robert Smith anyway." 

The small girl sat back in her seat, playing with the strap on her pants that wasn't connected to Will. Tiffany shook her head, smiling at her friend's giddiness, before taking a look around. People were filing in, but the place was still rather empty, especially where they were seated. Looking back to her friends, she noticed that Will was watching Emily with a curious expression on his face, his eyebrow quirking upon Tiffany's attention. Emily's conspiratory glance was directed at the stage; to her friends, it was quite obvious that she was plotting something. The girl in question noticed the two watching her, and smiled mischievously at them, making them all the more apprehensive. She could be plotting anything. Tiffany stared at the stage, watching as people walked on and off it, carrying various instruments and equipment. There weren't any security guards around only the friends of the band and the special guests had been allowed in this early, and the security guards that were present were near the entrance, checking admission security. The guard Tiffany had talked to earlier had long since moved to a more populated area of the venue, as a few more people started to arrive. The stage was unusually empty for a moment, and Tiffany saw a movement out of the corner of her eye, shortly before chaos burst from the seat to her left.

"I know he's back there!" Emily exclaimed, jumping from her seat, "he's gotta be back there somewhere!" The girl had waited for the opportune moment to dive for the stage, but had forgotten an important detail in her plan: she was still attached to William. She stopped midair as the small strap pulled taut, falling back into the lap of the now-trapped William. Her whimper of defeat was drowned out by the man's groan. It wasn't every day a rabid Cure fan landed in your lap, causing pain. "Now really, what good were you expecting to come out of that?" Will chided, looking at the girl who was sitting on him, grimacing. She moved a bit, shifting so that the arm of the chair was no longer embedded in her side, before turning to look at the seat's other occupant.   
"You're just mad that Evil Will didn't think of it first, " Emily said, grinning coyly. William's mouth opened slightly, with no words coming out, then closed. He growled, shooing Emily off his lap and into her own chair. After a few minutes, the two had resumed their conversation, chatting about which songs they thought The Cure might play.

About 20 minutes later, the house lights went down and the stage lights began to change colors. Behind the stage, two obscenely large screens were placed resembling massive gates.

"Yay!" Tiffany clapped, excitedly, as her boyfriend's band mates began stepped onstage, sans Gerard himself. She waved at Frank, who they were the closest to. Seeing her, the tiny guitarist gave a little wave before strapping on his guitar.

A moment later, Gerard's shadowed figure stepped onto the stage. Moving towards the mic stand, he gave her a quick grin before reaching his destination. Removing the mic, he turned towards the drum kit, tapping his foot as Bob began to play the heavy drums that signaled the beginning of "Cemetery Drive."

"Sunnydale," Gerard yelled, sounding coy yet seductive, "Are you ready?"

Tiffany opened her mouth to scream but was distracted from her task by the high-pitched squeal of someone next to her. She snapped her head around, seeing a blonde girl jumping up and down beside her, emitting a high-pitched shriek much in the fashion of a wounded harpie. The brunette couldn't hide her disdain, as she studied the girl. Forcing herself to be polite, she turned back to the stage, moving a few steps closer to Emily and Will.

"This night walk the dead…" Gerard began, after a few more comments to the audience, much of which were quite sexual in nature.

Will glanced at Tiffany, wondering if Gerard's risqué comments bothered her. He quickly pushed the thought away as she happily jumped around, singing loudly (though she couldn't really be heard) and watching her boyfriend with an ecstatic smile. The male shrugged, looking down at he strap attaching Emily and himself, he hoped she didn't suddenly start jumping and get them trampled- or more accurately, force him to jump around himself to keep them from being trampled.

The song concluded, and Gerard headed to the drum kit, once more, this time to get a sip of water. He poured a bit over his head, and then sprayed the remaining liquid over the crowd in the front row, including Tiffany and Emily. Will, much to his immense relief, missed the spray.

Tiffany started to say something when the blonde next to her began to gush…about the 'hawtness' of _Tiffany's _boyfriend.

"He's so hot, I would love to just…" she trailed off, making what she apparently hoped was a seductive growl.

"Excuse me-" Tiffany immediately turned to the girl, who was still gushing to her friend about Gerard. She turned to look at Tiffany, gesturing to the stage, "Gerard, he's gorgeous."

Said vocalist was currently introducing the next song, "Skylines and Turnstiles."

"He's so doable, I'd totally fu-"

"If you finish that sentence I will cut your heart out with a broken plastic fork with one prong," Tiffany said, her voice practically a growl.

Emily and Will looked at Tiffany, curiously, hearing her words.

The small girl grinned at Tiffany. She pulled a plastic fork from one of the numerous pockets that adorned her bondage pants, and offered it to her friend.

"You'll have to break off the tines yourself, if you wish to make the most of your threat," she said, as the brunette took the object from her shorter friend. She had always been able to count on Emily, no matter how obscure her requests might have been.

The girl who had been ogling Gerard, was now looking at Tiffany with wide eyes.

"I wondered what was poking me earlier," Will pondered.

Emily's eyes bulged slightly at his statement, and then she burst out laughing.

"What is your problem?" the blonde inquired, turning her attention back to Tiffany, who was brandishing her plastic fork in quite an intimidating manner.

"What's my problem?" Tiffany repeated, "You're currently talking about my boyfriend as if he's a piece of freakin' meat!" she informed.

The brunette was gesturing emphatically with the plastic fork. Her actions were making it rather hard for Emily and Will to keep from giggling, I mean she was threatening someone with a plastic utensil.

Gerard, who was on the stage not far from his girlfriend, noticed her seemingly heated exchange with the girl next to her. He frowned a bit, obviously unable to hear her words, or stop to ask what she was talking to the other girl about. Though, he couldn't help but smile a she gestured furiously with a plastic fork at her adversary.

"Your boyfriend? Gerard's your boyfriend?" the girl asked, incredulously.

Tiffany gave a firm nod, "Yes," she stated, shortly.

"Somehow I doubt that," The blonde retorted, "Do you know how many girls here would say the same thing?"

Tiffany gave a maniacal grin, and looking down at the utensil she held, began to focus on the task of removing all but one of the prongs.

"Oh right, you're going to cut my heart out with a fork-" the girl said, her sarcasm evident.

"Actually," Emily inserted, helpfully, "A _plastic _fork with one prong."

Will gave a sinister laugh, and then averted his gaze from the glaring blonde, though he was still laughing.

"Tell me where we go from here…" Gerard concluded, followed by energetic applause and screams from the audience. The vocalist brushed his hair off of his face, and then headed towards the edge of the stage, much to the delight of the crowd. The rest of the band continued to play, beginning the instrumental to 'You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison,' not quite sure what Gerard was doing.

Leaning down, the raven-haired singer looked at the blonde girl next to Tiffany, who immediately beamed. He gave no response to her excitement, as if he hadn't noticed it at all, as Tiffany looked up from her task and caught his gaze.

"Hey there, suga. We don't have a problem here, do we?" Gerard asked, his gaze briefly flitting to the girl Tiffany had been arguing with, and then returned to the brunette.

Tiffany gave a sickly sweet smile, then glancing at the blonde herself, turned back to Gerard, "No, we're fine here, honey," she informed.

"Good to know, I wouldn't want to have anyone kicked out," Gerard stated, his gaze landing once again on the girl beside Tiffany.

The blonde adversary was visibly fuming, while trying unsuccessfully to form words as she gaped like a fish. Anything she might have said would not have been acknowledged anyway, as Emily had just bounced up to the stage, with Will in tow, to speak to the vocalist.

"Gerard, can you give these to Ray? I meant to do it before the show, kind of a as a joke, but I didn't see him," The shorter girl stated, procuring a pair of chopsticks from her pants as well.

"What other utensils do you carry around.." Will mumbled, shaking his head.

Emily stuck her tongue out at Will before handing the object to Gerard, "I thought he would think it was funny, maybe they'll stay in his hair…" she grinned.

Gerard smiled, giggling a bit at the girl. He took the object from her, holding them in the hand that wasn't holding the mic by his side.

"You should be singing, I don't know how much longer the guys are going to wanna play this riff, Frankie might kick you again," Tiffany inserted, grinning at her boyfriend.

Gerard made a face of faux terror, "You're right, he might beat me up," he smirked.

Tiffany continued to grin at the rock star, "Go give the 12 year olds what they paid for," she said.

Gerard gave her a smirk, and a wink before turning on his heel and heading towards Ray.

"He always mocks me with the winking," Tiffany grumbled, throwing her hands up in the air, frustrated, though she was definitely not going to deny the hotness of the act.

The fluffy-haired guitarist was looking at Emily with an immense smile, as he now had the chopstick hair accessories stuck into his massive 'fro. Gerard had placed them there after showing them to his friend, who was still playing his guitar, waiting for Gerard to begin singing.

Tiffany couldn't help but laugh at his appearance, and Emily and Will were quick to join in as the Gerard _finally _began singing "prison."

"In the middle of a gunfight..."

Tiffany glanced away from the stage and back to the blonde. The disbelieving girl had managed to close her mouth, but Tiffany still wasn't sure what had shocked her more; that Gerard had been so close to her, or that Tiffany had, in fact, been telling that truth. The brunette shrugged, turning her attention back to her boyfriend, who was running around the stage like a lunatic.

She began to sing along, happily.


	16. Who Ya Gonna Call?

"Thank you! THE FUCKING CURE is next, but it's gonna take about 30 minutes for them to set up and put in more hairspray," Gerard announced. "I'm just kidding, I love you Robert! So go get a drink, take a piss, make out with a new friend, and be back in half an hour!" He said something to one of the security guards and jumped down off the stage, heading for Tiffany and her friends.

"C'mon, we're going to go backstage for a bit. Security will make sure no one upgrades into your seats while you're gone," he explained, as he gave a few high-fives and autographs to the people around them. They scampered back onto the stage,and after a few minutes of goofing around with the rest of MCR, Tiffany's phone rang.

"But everyone I love is here!" she said, staring at the phone incredulously. Her heart panged as she realized, no, everyone wasn't here – she still wasn't right with Caitlin. She didn't recognize the number, but answered the phone to yell at whomever it was. On speakerphone.

"SOMEONE BETTER BE DEAD! I'M AT AN MCR SHOW!"

"Um… no, no zombies today, sorry," Willow's voice announced. The group crowded around to hear over the music.

"What's going on?" Tiffany asked, now nervous.

"Oh. Giles needed to talk to Emily, but he called her phone and it's here on the table, and he didn't know your number, so I helped him find it in your phone and then called it for him because he was all 'I hate technology' and knows I'm all 'I love technology' so he asked me to assist."

Tiffany stared at the phone and blinked. "So is something wrong?"

"I don't know, he seems upset – and now he's upset that I'm saying he's upset and now he's even more upset that I keep talking about his upsetness. Andnowhe'stakingthephonehereheis!"

"Hello?" He sounded nervous.

"Hey, Gilesy. Is there an apocalypse? 'Cause it's gonna have to wait."

"No, just – Willow, can you go in the other room for a moment? It's just, well, I – I wanted to say, I wanted to tell Emily that… she's with you, that is, right?"

"Yeessssssss."

"Well I wanted to tell her that if something should… occur… with Mr. Smith I wouldn't be too angry. I'm sure I'd be a little jealous at first, but I realize that she's adored him from afar for a long time now and that nothing prolonged would manifest from it, in the end. And I think it would do her good to get it out of her system."

"WHAT?!" Gerard yelled. "Did he really just give Emily permission to fuck Robert Smith?

"Was that Gerard? Why can he hear our conversation? What is going on?"

"It's speakerphone, Giles. Everyone can hear you."

"I'm trying to have a private conversation here!"

"I'm sorry, I should have asked. I just thought it was something universally important, like monsters or demons or something, not permissions for sexcapades. I'll take you off speakerphone, hang on."

She hit the 'mute' button. "I'm leaving him on speakerphone so Emily can here. So keep your mouths SHUT!" She unmated the conversation.

"Okay Tweed-Man. Go ahead."

"I'm sure that she would allow me a 'free pass' if I were in a similar situation, so Emily has my permission to… pursue… Mr. Smith. This once."

"Wait, what famous person would you like to – never mind. Please don't answer that."

"Will you just pass along the infernal message?" He sounded peeved, and a little hurt.

"You know, what you said earlier – that's exactly what I said about Emily when she first said she saw you in the bookstore."

"Really? I'm not sure if you're trying to make me feel relieved or rethink what I'm granting."

"Relieved. She really thinks you're a catch, with your tweedy-ness and your British-ism and all that jazz. If you think she's swooning over Smitty, you should hear her talk about you."

"I… I had no idea…"

"Giles, if she were any more smitten I'd be afraid she was going to kill herself off like Wurther. Robert Smith isn't one for bagging fans and Emily isn't a StarFucker… it's probably not going to happen. She'll probably faint, and Will will pronounce her OK, and we'll come home and you can nurse her back to health. Only, not in the nurse costume my now blind mind's eye conjured up."

Emily mouthed 'thank you,' when Giles paused, and then unknowingly echoed the sentiment. "Thank you, Tiffany. I will let you get back to your evening – pass that information on to Emily for me."

"Will do, ."

A loud sigh was heard. "And give her my love. Goodbye."

"Bye Tweedpants."

Tiffany hung up the phone and pantomimed puking into one of Gerard's makeup cases.

"Did that really just happen?" Will asked.

"So, Tiffany – can _I_ have my way with Robert Smith?" Gerard asked with a grin.

"Only if you take copious amounts of video," she replied. "That only really shows you making out, because _ew_, do I really not want to see those parts of him."

"Emily? You should be all happy and plotting your seduction and stuff. What gives?"

"I… this is all very weird. Very. Weird."

***

"Say, Willow, as long as you're here would you mind helping me check my electronic mail?" Giles squinted at the computer. He didn't really like it, but Emily insisted upon it being in the house. Since this internet seemed to be such a staple of her life, he thought he should be at least partially aware of how to use it.

"Sure, Gilesy," Willow beamed. "Finally going techie on us?"

He glared as she logged him into his email.

"Willow, why is this person trying to sell me Viagra? Are there rumors that I'm impotent, because let me tell, you, I-"

"Giles! No. Please, stop talking. It's just spam," Willow said.

"Spam? That strange canned 'meat' that you Americans think has some sort of food value?"

"No, spam as in junk mail, people trying to trick you into giving them money or buying their products or giving them your information."

"And people fall for this?

"Yes."

"Well. I have half a mind to send an electronic message back to this 'Doktore Boneher' and tell him just what I think of his crude accusations that I cannot satisfy my significant other!"

Willow covered her hand with her face. She really, _really_ didn't want to know. But then again, she supposed she _had_ dated a werewolf and a witch that happened to be a girl. She patted Giles on the shoulder.

"There, there. We all think you're just dandy in the sack."

Giles looked down at her hand.

"Well, that didn't come out right," she said awkwardly. "You know what I mean."

"Thank you, Willow."

"No problemo. Did you need help with anything else?"

"No, I believe that is all for the night. Go enjoy your weekend."

He smiled at her and removed his glasses. As soon as the door was shut behind her, his expression slid into one of worry.


	17. Dusting and Thrusting

"Oh shit," Gerard said,"they're about to start. Get back to your seats!" He rushed them out the door and into the hands of security, who got them settled back in their spaces just as the last tech man gave the last thumbs-up of the night. Will laughed at Emily's saucer-eyes and constant bouncing.

"Ah, that I were that young and at my first Cure show again," he said.

"Yeah, because you're so _freakishly_ old," Tiffany said sarcastically. He laughed.

Minutes passed. The crowd applauded as the band members trickled onto the stage and fiddled with their instruments. There wasn't a sign of –

"Mother of Porl," Emily said in a whisper, she slumped to the ground upon the appearance of Robert Smith. Will fell a little with her – half because he was catching her, and half because she was still freaking tied to him. He patted her face lightly.

"Um, she's never actually fainted before," Tiffany said.

Will smacked her a little harder. Her eyes fluttered open just as the singer's voice echoed over the microphone.

"Is ev'rything okay over there? Do we need a medic?" he asked, his English accent thick.

Emily's squeak of "!" was drowned out by Will's call of, "No she's come to, but thank you!" as he hoisted her upright. The crowd applauded, and Robert Smith nodded and began the intro to "Lullaby."

"If he makes that weird little throat-catchy noise I think I might c-"

"Ho, now, young lady, I don't want to hear anything about any of that business!" Will interrupted. Tiffany's laughter gradually faded into noises of disgust.

Emily shivered as he did, in fact, make the noise. "Maybe if I got Giles a black wig, and teased it out…"

"No! The mental images in my head… my inner retinas… I'm never going to be able to… Oh, God..."

She laughed at Tiffany's emotional scarring, but didn't look away from the stage. She hadn't actually realized that she'd voiced the thought out loud. She was too busy taking in the spidery hair, the ever-so-slightly-smudged lipstick, the messy black eyeliner. She sighed and leaned against the railing.

"Do we have to stay connected while she's trying to shag Smitty?" Will asked.

"Yes."

"Bloody hell. It'll be more awkward than when I walked in on her and Giles doing-"

"If you finish that sentence, I will key "I love Pearl Jam" onto your car," Tiffany threatened. He gulped, but perked up and began to dance with Emily as "Friday I'm In Love" began. Tiffany giggled at the two child-like adults, who finally mellowed when "Lovesong" started.

"Yay! This is me and Giles' song!" Emily said, clapping her hands together.

"Really? I thought it was 'Sweet Child of Mine?'" Will teased. He laughed when Emily punched him lightly in the arm and then laughed herself.

"Really though, it's cute – excuse me while I vomit," Tiffany said.

After a long set, the last note of "The Last Day of Summer" faded away, and The Cure bowed to the massive applause that ensued and slipped backstage. Gerard's head poked through one of the side curtains and summoned a security guard; he pointed at his girlfriend and her group and the guard headed over.

"This way, guys," he said, helping the girls over the railing and nodding in appreciation that Will could help himself. "Not," he said with a hand up as the surrounding fans tried to climb over, "the rest of you. VIP pass-holders only, sorry."

They beamed, and let themselves be led backstage for the second time that night. Emily squeaked as she saw Robert's bushy head walking away down the hall.

He turned around. She blinked. He pointed at her and walked toward them.

"You're the girl who fell at the beginning of the show, aren't you?" he asked. "I recognized the tall guy," he said with a grin. Will laughed. And blushed just the weensiest amount.

Emily opened her mouth, but no words came out. She nodded.

"Well, I hope you're feeling all right now."

"Mrmphsfjmlmj," Emily replied.

"She says thanks," Tiffany translated.

"I dunno, I'm pretty sure I heard, 'wanna fuuuuuuuuuck?'," Gerard said with a laugh. He put an arm around his girlfriend and waited for Robert's reply. Emily blushed.

It was then that Emily realized that Robert Smith, whom her shirt was about, was reading her shirt. She blushed bright red.

"Fascination Street, eh? Well, I do love crimson on a girl…"

***

Across town in the large apartment that Caitlin and Max shared, the pair were entertaining guests. Angel and Buffy, to be exact. They were currently gathered around their large dining room table, with a board game spread out in front of them. Their game of choice this evening happened to be _Apples to Apples_. The green card on the table read 'Evil', and the players were doing their best to define that particular word. Now, Angel was in control of choosing the winner of that round.

Flipping over the cards that had been handed to him, he read them aloud:

Hitler.

Doing laundry.

Angela Landsbury.

And the final card, which read 'Vampires.'

A scowl worked its way onto his features, as he glanced around the table. Eyeing each person in turn, he tossed the card across the table. "This one definitely doesn't win. It's far too general."

Caitlin immediately burst out laughing. Despite not winning that particular round, the look on Angel's face was all the gratification that she needed for her choice.

***

Minutes later, Emily blinked her eyes open and looked up. She saw a ceiling, and a mass of blurry hair.

"His hair is black, the sky is white," she mumbled. Robert and Will laughed. "Where am I? It's soft." She couldn't believe she'd fainted again. And in front of Robert… again.

"You're on the couch in the Cure's backstage section. More importantly, _my_ couch, in _my _section. You are lying in the very place my bum graced not hours ago," Robert said with false drama.

"Oh God."

He chuckled. Emily laughed nervously and sat up.

"I'm sorry, I don't usually faint so much. I've never fainted before in my life, actually."

"No worries. It's actually quite flattering, and I'm sure Will here didn't mind the excuse to carry you around."

"Oh, we're not –"

"That is to say we're friends but-"

"I mean this one time, but-"

"I have a fiancé!" "She has a fiancé!"

"I see."

"But it's okay, because you're the exception to the fidelity rule." Will looked at her. "Fuck, I didn't mean to really say that, in words and with sounds and all."

"Well, you're just laying that flattery on thick tonight," he said, taking a seat next to her. She studied him. His lipstick was a little more smudged from the singing and sweating, and his eyeliner was a little more blurry. She thought he looked beautiful.

"Can I…"

"Touch it? Yes," he said, grinning.

She gasped, and stretched her hand toward him. She touched the tresses lightly, hesitantly at first, and then ran her fingers through them. He slid his arm around her waist and tugged her closer, cocking an eyebrow at the other man.

"Will?"

***

In MCR's section, Tiffany and Gerard watched as Mikey, Frank, and Bob played a violent game of charades.

"What do you think they're doing?" Tiffany asked. "I mean, what is Robert like? Until now I figured Will and Emily would just giggle a lot and ask him about Cure-y things, but then when we saw him earlier I realized I don't really know anything about his personality."

"No one does, really," Gerard answered, laughing and Bob's ultra-imaginative duck charade. "But I bet they're doin' it."

"Really? Why?"

"I dunno. Because you're cute when you make that 'I'm so grossed out but morbidly curious' face?"

***

Back at the ranch, Giles had dusted and reorganized his codices. He'd made himself a healthy dinner, and eaten it while reading the latest edition of the _Hellmouth Times_, a local newsletter that Willow and Caitlin had developed in the last year or so. While it had a rather ridiculous name, it was very thorough with keeping all of the Scoobies caught up on the latest baddies that were roaming around the Sunnydale area.

After finishing the latest edition of their newsletter, he decided to kill time by organizing and polishing his mythical talismans. Of course, he was very careful not to rub anything that might conjure a demon, as he didn't want to allow Xander an avenue to find himself a new, demonic girlfriend.

When he was finished with that particular task, he decided to focus on more mundane things. Such as dusting the furniture, and even vacuuming the rugs. In the midst of these boring activities, he stumbled upon Emily's vinyls in the floor where she and William had left them. Rifling through the stacks, he frowned slightly at the bright, splashy colors on a particular vinyl. That alone assured him that it probably was not a Cure album, which was exactly what he didn't want to hear right now.

Pulling the vinyl in question from the sleeve, he placed it onto the record player and moved the needle over to begin playing the first song. A frown continued to work its way onto his features, as the first track opened with some sort of weird monologue, before the person speaking informed him that he 'sucked dick.'

As if that were not offensive enough, before the first minute of the song was up, he was almost certain that his ears were bleeding and the artist, if they could be called that, had told him to go kill himself. It was amazing what young people opted to listen to these days. Quickly removing the vinyl from the sleeve, he decided that he never wanted to hear anything from Mindless Self Indulgence ever again.

Turning to move his fingers over the spines of his own vinyls, he gathered up a Cream album, placing it onto the area that offensive vinyl had just been. As the first, mellow chords began to play, he picked up his feather duster and began to remove the dust from the nearest bookcase.

***


	18. Climax or Intermission

Emily and Will sauntered out of Smith's room, and Tiffany and Gerard saw the frontman blow them each a kiss as he dashed toward the back door.

"Almost late for his flight," Will said. He seemed very nonchalant.

Tiffany was suspicious. She looked them over a moment, and then…

"Emily, you weren't wearing lipstick when you went in there – you didn't even _bring_ lipstick! And… oh my word, Will – your shirt!"

The two looked down and smoothed their clothes, but the damage was done.

"Your lipstick, his collar – don't bother angels, I know exactly what goes on."

Gerard snickered. "So was it one after the other, or both at the same time?"

Tiffany elbowed him in the ribs. "Things I don't need to hear: THAT!"

"I need a fucking cigarette," Emily said. "Or booze. Or a cold shower. Or…"

"It couldn't have been that good," Gerard said with a sneer. No way. The man was almost… well, right about Giles' age, he supposed.

"Security interrupted because they thought someone was getting hurt," Emily said, grinning. "And Will had his pants off in the same room with me and didn't care… probably because he knew I wasn't remotely looking."

"Emi! Don't-"

"Hey, I didn't say if you got naked or not. Your good reputation is being upheld…"

Gerard and Tiffany laughed. "I'd fuck 'im," Gee said. "For reals."

Tiffany slapped her boyfriend on the arm lightly and took his hand. "Are you guys ready to go back? I'm sure Giles is waiting to hear all about this."

"Yeah, but I'm going to need a shower before that. As much as it will pain me to wash the Smitty germs off, I think it would be just a bit too much for them there while I'm with Rupert. I mean, if I got him the fuckdate with his person, I'd want him to wash that off before seeing me again."

"Who IS his person?" Tiffany asked. Damn her morbid obsession for knowledge and the macabre.

"You'll have to ask him yourself. I've been sworn under pain of death," Emily said.

They headed back to Tiffany's, where Emily took a quick shower. Tiffany coughed and a huge, fluffy towel _not _ever used by Gerard appeared in the bathroom, along with a fresh set of Emily's clothes. She fixed both the Cure addicts up and they all started their journey to Giles'.

"This," Will said ominously, "Is going to be eighty kinds of awkward."

"And a half," Tiffany added.


	19. Stealth Fail x Midget on the Run

The door of Giles' apartment opened a few inches, and Emily's head peeked through the small space. After a moment of letting her eyes move around the interior, she was unable to spot Giles in the main area of the apartment. Making some kind of obscure hand gesture, she ushered the trio of people behind her into the apartment. A groan of disbelief could be heard from the end of the line, as Gerard opened his mouth to make a comment about the ridiculousness of the situation. Of course, Tiffany was ready for this, and promptly slapped a hand over his mouth to muffle any noise that might be made. The prospect of stepping into Giles' apartment with Emily and Will after what had just taken place was frightening, and she wanted Giles to have as little advantage as possible. He was, after all, a ferocious former librarian; this was something to which Gerard's previously bruised face could attest.

Slinking through the not-quite shadowed interior of the living area, Emily stopped abruptly as she spotted the silhouette of Giles' sleeping form on the couch. Without a word to anyone behind her, she tucked and rolled herself against the space that separated her from the other side of the hall.

Gerard's eyebrows raised as he watched the ridiculous behavior, this time Tiffany was unable to stop him from speaking as he muttered a emphatic, "What the fuck was that? Are you Macgyver?"

Tiffany's eyes immediately moved to her boyfriend, narrowing into slits. This was clearly a grave situation. "Shut the fuck up, or we're going to be in Mission: Impossible, where the mission is escaping from Giles alive!"

Will reached up, pressing a hand to his forehead in dismay. The evening's events had started to take a toll on his psyche, especially with the knowledge that Emily had, in fact, seen him without pants. It was all too much for this modest fellow. "We should all be very quiet," he stated, prompting Tiffany to shoot a look in his direction that clearly said 'that was what I just said!'

Emily's head poked out from the other side of the hallway, as she kept herself crouched down and hidden behind the alcove across from them. "I would say you guys could just leave, but if me and Will are going down I'm taking you with us."

"Well I kinda would like to see him get angry at someone other than me," Gerard said thoughtfully. "I bet it would be pretty funny, since you guys always laugh your asses off when he comes at me."

Tiffany gave a slow nod, her eyes moving over to the un-moving shape on the couch. The shadows in the living room made it difficult to see which direction that the British man was laying, which was unfortunate, as she would have liked to know so that she could properly run the opposite direction if he were to wake up.

Turning her attention back to Emily, she took a step backwards, reaching out to snag Gerard's arm in hopes of dragging him back towards the entrance for a quick escape. They had only taken half a step, however, when a loud chiming noise rang throughout the apartment. The noise immediately disrupted the focused group, who let out varying degrees of shocked noises, though Emily's shrill squeak was the most obvious, and Gerard's cry of 'fuck' was the most obscene.

They immediately froze, however, afraid that their noises and the sound of the chimes would wake Giles. Especially as they continue to chime, three more times. Was it really four o'clock in the morning? Glancing over at the shape on the couch, they all held their breath, waiting for some sign that he was going to wake, somehow know exactly what had happened, and then rip out all their throats.

Unfortunately, they were not prepared for what was about to take place.

The lights suddenly flipped on, and from the balcony above them the sound of Giles' voice could be heard. "Oh, I didn't know you were all at home." Though, any logical course of conversation he was about to pursue was cut off as the quartet of people in the area of the apartment beneath him began to shout once again.

Tiffany yelped, pressing herself against Gerard, as he yelled another loud curse. Will ducked, attempting to press himself into the alcove where Emily was hiding, though he only managed to smack his head on the small area, falling backwards onto the carpet with his hand pressed firmly to his head, muttering something that passed for words beneath his breath.

"Giles! What the hell!? Don't you know that you should not sneak up on people in your own house! It's just rude!" Tiffany stated, her voice at an unreasonably shrill level as she looked at the older man. Her eyes were wide as she let her eyes move over his features, realizing that they were now caught and there was no way to avoid being there when the smit (pun intended) hit the fan.

"I'm okay, no need for anyone to do first aid or anything," Will said with a growl from the floor.

"So what the fuck is that lump on the couch? The one that you tried to make me _roll_ past in case it was Brit-guy?" Gerard said, throwing his hands up in the air.

"_That_," Giles said from above, "is the pile of weaponry that I just finished cleaning, polishing and loading."

In some kind of sick, theatrical fashion, Tiffany, Gerard, and Will promptly gulped in dismay. Emily, on the other hand, made some kind of content, swooning noise.

"Well, we'll just be leaving now so you guys can do all that tooth-brushing and jammie-wearing and get to sleep," Tiffany said, edging toward the door. She grabbed Gerard, and thought they were home free until…

"Stop. Explain," Giles said ominously from the balcony. Tiffany shuddered. It was like a wrathful, tweed-wearing God was ordering them from the heavens.

"I, uh, well…"

"Why are you and poncey boy here in my house at _four in the morning_, without my fiancée and her tall tagalong?"

"I want tagalongs," Will said from the floor, still nursing his battle wounds.

"They're both here," Tiffany announced. "Emily's stuck in the alcove and Will is lying on the floor injured."

"What?! Were we burgled?"

"That sounded worse that it is…" Tiffany pulled Emily out and the three of them hoisted Will from the floor.

"I'm not an invalid, or a fatty," Will said. "I feel somehow offended that it took all three of you to do that."

"Shut up, you billboard, we're just weaklings. Look at us. A writer, a musician, and a midget. It sounds like a bad joke," Tiffany said.

"I am not a billboard!" Will yelled, indignantly.

"Can you stop this prattling and please tell me what the bloody hell is going on?" Giles said angrily from his perch. The four all answered at once.

"We're running a little late," Emily said.

"I fell down," said Will.

"She fucked him!" Gerard yelled.

"Your malicious speech from above reminds me of the Jabberwocky," Tiffany said.

"Emily fucked a Jabberwocky?"

"No!" they all said in unison.

"Giles just said 'fuck'! You can't say 'fuck'! What is the world coming to! I'm telling Will!"

"I'm right here, you dim-witted cabbage."

"I like it when he says 'fuck'," Emily said.

"Tell me what is going on _this instant_!" Giles yelled. They all went silent.

"Gerard. You'll tell the crude truth. What happened? Why are you all sneaking about?"

"Your girlfriend and her boyfriend toured Fascination Street."

Giles put his hand in his palm. "In English, please."

"Emily, Will, and Robert… you know. Bow-chica-wow-wow."

"British English."

"They had sexual congress," Tiffany said, trying to help.

Giles looked down at the group and frowned. He turned on his heel and strode away from the edge of the balcony. They heard the bedroom door slam violently.

"Oh, shit," Tiffany said. "I didn't know he was capable of slamming doors. He's always so… quiet, and not door-slammy."

"Nah, think about it – she fucked Robert Smith, and now she gets to have make-up sex with that other British guy in the morning. Maybe she can even get him to swing for a three-wa-"

"Oh, for crying out loud, I fuck one British rockstar and I'm marked for life!" Will grumbled.

"Wait… where _is_ she?" Tiffany asked. "She was just… EMILY! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"

Turning to look around the space around them, a frown slid onto her face as she looked around the apartment. The only sign that anything was amiss was that the lump on the couch of weaponry was now visible, and the front door was slightly ajar.

"How did she do that so quickly?" Gerard mused, his voice full of disbelief as he looked from one side of the room, to the door, and then back again.

"Midget stealth," Will stated, with a long sigh.

Tiffany muttered another curse under her breath, as she moved towards the stairs, knowing that they needed to let Giles know that she was gone before she got too far. After all, despite all of her tiny fury, she was still only five-foot-three. And alone.

Ascending the stairs, she heard Will and Gerard grumbling beneath her as the spoke about where a midget might go in Sunnydale.

Reaching Giles' door, she rapped her knuckles roughly against the wooden structure. Biting down on her bottom lip, she waited for the inevitable grumpiness that would come forth from within. But, it was just something that she would have to deal with. They needed to find Emily, and if all else failed and Giles still wanted to hit something…well, she'd throw Gerard in front of him again.

"Go away; I don't wish to converse this evening."

"Giles, I know that you don't want to talk to Emily, but this is Tiffany which makes it better. And, also, we kind of have an issue."

"I don't want to talk to you, either," the British man could be heard, though slightly muffled through the door. "After all, you were supposed to look out for her, and you let them sleep together, you've made her into some kind of common trollop."

"Giles! This has nothing to do with me. You gave her permission; we all heard it on speakerphone. And also, don't call her a common trollop, she's at least an uncommon trollop, and also your fiancée."

Sighing, the brunette waited for any other sign that Giles was going to listen to what she had to say. Her optimistic side hoped that he would open the door, as it seemed to be easier to sway him when they were face-to-face. Of course, there was no way she was going to open the door before he did. What if he were naked or something? Shudder.

As the door remained unmoving, she sighed. She needed to get Giles out of that room, before Emily was eaten by a resident demon, and not in the fun way that had occurred previously with Robert Smith to incite this whole mess.

The only statement that came from the other side of the door was a miffed, "You told me that you were going to take me off of that contraption. Do you always lie this much?"

A growl of frustration escaped the young woman as she lifted her knuckles to knock roughly upon the wooden face of the door once again. "Come on, Giles, I have something serious to tell you. Can't you just come out here?"

Turning to her right, she noticed that Will and Gerard had followed her up the steps and were looking at her. "I don't know what else to do to get him out of there," she stated, giving a slight shrug.

"Maybe you should try shouting fire," Will suggested, in a deadpan voice.

Leaning forward, Tiffany banged her forehead against the door with a thud. "Gilesssssssssssss!"

"GILES! YOUR MOTHERFUCKING SLUT FIANCEE JUST RAN AWAY, NOW GET THE FUCK OUT HERE AND GO RIDE OFF INTO THE FUCKING SUNRISE IN YOUR CITREON OF SHIT AND FIND HER BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE DOES!"

"Gerard! Oh my God!" Tiffany said, before dissolving into laughter with Will. "Wait, this isn't funny…"

The door banged open onto its hinges, and Tiffany fell forward into the floor as Giles stormed out.

"You morons. She's been gone this whole time? And you just stood here – did any of you happen to see which way she went, or were you all too busy reliving your latest conquests?" He pushed past them, grabbed his black bag and headed out the door.

"We should probably help," Tiffany said from the floor.

"Yeah. And call the others," Will added. "But not the bitchy one."

"Yeah not Caitlin," Tiffany said with a pang as she dialed up the Scoobies. "She'll only rant about how Emily really _was _the ruin of everything."

"Willow? Hey, it's Tiffany…"


End file.
